“Mm. I’ve had better.”
Marex turned his head away to press his lips together, suppressing laughter.
He was going to love this woman with every fiber of his being, he had no doubt about that.
He had no doubt, period, about anything.
The door opened and Nadine swept through the space. Marex leveled his gaze, growled, and marched toward the door, the loosened bounds of the chains dropping to the concrete. The guard’s eyes rounded wide as Marex mightily kicked the steel with a roar. The guard dropped with an astonished yell to his backside, desperately reaching for his knife.
Nadine beat him to it. She snatched the dagger and held the point to his quivering double chin. “If you want to live, I suggest you obey.”
Her fearlessness amazed Marex, making him swell with pride. He came around the guard’s back and took him in a chokehold, dragging his heavy body into the cell. The man thrashed about to remain conscious, but Marex was too strong, had done this too many times. He stripped the unconscious guard of his boots and tied them on before dashing out of the cell and closing the door.
He took his soul mate’s hand in his and they ran down the hall to the main door, which led to a long, steep staircase above. He looked back at Nadine who slowly smiled, her eyes giving him all the strength he’d ever need, trusting him completely.
He climbed the first few steps to his new destiny, his fate in his hands now.
With her.
This Cowboy Bites
by Randi Alexander
Chapter One
In his sleep, Kade Rourke sensed someone on his property. Someone other than the ranch hand who’d already left for the day. Loud banging on the front door yanked him fully awake. “Shit.”
Moving on fast-forward, he pulled on black jeans, a black t-shirt, and boots. He wrenched open the front door before the next knock.
A tall blonde girl nearly toppled in, her arm raised for another knock. Her big, blue eyes opened wide when her fist stopped an inch short of his chin.
“Emma?” The night shift waitress at the diner. “Who let you onto the property?”
A flush of red crept up her neck. His nostrils flared as he caught the scent of blood.
“I snuck in through the gate after your foreman left.”
He looked past her. The sun was down, the yard lights glared from the barn, and a bike lay at the foot of the porch steps. Was she stalking him? Ironic. He usually did the stalking.
Bad timing for a social visit, though. “You don’t want to be here today.” He hadn’t fed in over a month. Blood hunger clawed at his stomach. He’d planned to make the long drive to El Paso tonight, find a loose young thing at a bar, and take her with his cock and then his fangs. But when Emma tipped her head and her hair swung away from her neck, his fangs tingled, ready to come down. He leaned closer.
She stepped back, and he sensed a small burst of fear mingling with her determination. “Please, Kade, hear what I have to say.”
He nodded. They’d talked a dozen times when he went to town for a late night meal. Sometimes she’d sit with him if things were slow. He knew all about her family, her friends, her online college classes. The sexual connection between them was strong. She felt it, too. But what kept him going back was her company. He craved it, despite telling himself local women were off limits. But she made him laugh, which was something he hadn’t done in a decade.
“I’m here”—her voice cracked—”because I need your help.”
He’d listen to her, help if he could, then decide what to do with her. His breath nearly stopped at the image of her spread naked on his bed, holding out her arms to him. If he did take her, he’d scrub her mind, make her forget about the bloodletting. But he’d want her to remember the sex. Aw, God, if he made love to a sweet, young beauty like her, he’d want her all night, every night.
“What do you need from me, Emma?”
She hiccupped a breath, squeezed her hands together, and stared past his shoulder. “My little sister has disappeared. Dad said she’s been spending time with a group of kids he thought were just Goth.” She looked at him, eyes sparkling with tears. “You know, they wear black and act strange.”
He grunted at the perfect description of himself.
“But when she didn’t come home last night, Dad called the sheriff. He told us these kids are into vampire ritual.”
That sent a chill down his spine. He’d seen what wanna-be vamps did to their prey. It wasn’t pretty. “Shit.”
“You don’t…know anything about them, do you?”
He shook his head. He was a solo vampire. He kept to himself, guarded his privacy. Except around her. The hours they spent talking brought a closeness he hadn’t experienced in a century, but obviously it had also piqued her curiosity and awakened her feral sensuality.
A month ago, she’d sent him a psychic message from across the diner. “I know the rumors about you are true, Kade, and I still want you.” His gaze had shot to hers and she’d gasped, then smiled, seductive and empowered. She’d glided over and slid into the booth across from him and told him telepathically, “You can bite me, Kade. I want you to.” His mouth watered, his cock jerked, before he gave himself a mental head slap. He never, never, fed close to home. He stood, threw down a couple twenties, and left. Stayed away since. And that should have been the end of it.
But, no, here was Emma O’Connor, asking him if he was involved with a gang of fake vampires. “It has nothing to do with me. I can’t help you.” He stepped back and swung the door toward her, but she bravely, or foolishly, smacked her hands on the solid oak and shoved back.
“Please.” Tears trailed down her face. “I know you have powers. Is there anything, any ability you have that can help us find her?” She folded her hands. “I promise no one will know about this.”
Her pain jolted him as her honesty shone like a light. A tiny thread of hope seeped out of her, reviving his long-dormant conscience.
She must have seen the change in his face. Stepping forward, she grasped his forearms in a surprisingly strong grip. “Anything. I’ll do anything if you can help.”
He battled a surge of lust. Anything? Her touch was like quicksilver, spreading through his body, turning him into an animal. He stared into eyes the color of the midday sky he hadn’t seen in a century. His canines moved down in his mouth as he watched life coursing through her veins beneath her pale skin. Behind his fly, his cock grew and filled. Every thought centered on his need to slide his hard rod into her soft, pink pussy while he sliced into her neck and drank.
She glanced down at his erection then back into his eyes with a heavy-lidded gaze. He sensed her lush, dark desire replacing all other emotions. Her body quivered, her nipples peaked, pointing hard and needy, through her t-shirt. Her breasts rose and fell with her rapid breaths.
He stepped back and broke contact before he lost control.
She blinked a couple times, seeming to pull herself back from the fantasy she’d been immersed in.
What was this intense connection between them? Nothing uprooted his world the way Emma did. He felt what she felt, understood her dreams, and wanted her with a passion that he couldn’t cage. As if fate had aligned their meeting. Even though she suspected he was vampire, she wanted him, trusted him enough to ask for his help.
He would try, for her sake. There was one thing, but he hadn’t used it in years. If he attempted it, she’d know without a doubt he had powers beyond any human’s. “Do you have anything of hers?”
Her fingers went to her throat. “I put on Sarah’s necklace today. To keep her close.”
Raising his hand, he brushed the backs of his fingers on Emma’s throat, snagging the necklace. A blast of desire ripped through him but was quickly replaced by the chill of clairvoyance as he willed his mind to travel and meld with Sarah’s.
“She’s in a dark room.”
Emma cried out in anguish.
“Watching TV.” He pinpointed his third eye. “
No, it’s a video game. She’s playing a video game, sitting on a couch. Drinking Coke and eating Lays.”
“What?” She sounded incredulous.
“She’s looking at someone next to her. A girl, about fifteen, with curly red hair and a lip piercing.” He dropped his hand and the power left him. Few things could make a vampire weak, but live clairvoyance was one of them. His knees wobbling, Kade walked to the wicker porch sofa and sat.
Emma was on her cell phone with her father. “You know her?” After a second, she nodded at Kade. When she hung up, she deflated, nearly melting into a puddle on his porch.
“Sit a minute,” he offered.
She walked over and plopped down, her relaxed position belying her tension. “Dad said it had to be Rena, a girl from Sarah’s class.”
“Why did she run away?”
Emma sighed, heavy and slow. “It was my fault. I saw her grades and told her she had to spend more time studying if she wanted to make it into college.” She looked at him, her eyes sorrowful. “I was trying to motivate her. But I just pissed her off.” She shook her head. “Do you have sisters?”
“Not any longer.” His sisters had been well behaved, but that was at the turn of the century. The last century.
“Were they…” Her gaze was inquisitive, but her hesitation was back.
“Vampires?”
She nodded.
He opened his mouth to reply, but her phone rang.
“Hello?”
Shit. He’d almost answered her, almost let down his guard. She did that to him. He was a century older in years lived, yet around her he was like a young man again, trusting and optimistic.
She hung up and turned a relieved face to him. “The girls were hiding out at Rena’s. Dad’s on his way there right now.” Tears traced down her cheeks. “Thank you for helping.” She touched the necklace. “I’d like to know more about your gift some day.”
It would never happen. “Some day.”
She slid closer to his end of the couch. “I owe you.” She looked at him, her eyes darkening. “You can bite me.”
He sensed a sweet flood of desire mixing with her gratitude. It unnerved him. He couldn’t take her up on her offer when she was this emotionally charged. Lifting a brow, he said, “Bite me as in ‘fuck off’?”
She didn’t laugh, didn’t take the hint that he wanted her to back off. She tipped her head, exposing the long pale expanse where her jugular pulsed. “Please. Take my blood.”
Every nerve in his body throbbed, his teeth elongated so quickly they hurt. What she was offering, he needed to stay alive. But this was no ordinary prey. If he gave in to her, he’d want to possess her. Permanently.
He stood and walked past her. “Forget it. You owe me nothing.” He reached inside the door, grabbed his hat, and shoved it on his head. Taking the stairs down off the porch two at a time, he called over his shoulder, “You need to leave. Now.”
Chapter Two
Emma stood on the porch, watching Kade’s long strides take him to the barn. What just happened? She’d been grateful, yes, but she wanted him. Her core contracted with need, the same way it had when she put her hands on his arms.
He was more alive, more wired than any man she’d known. She had to experience that electric charge. She’d seen his erection, glimpsed white teeth extending long and sharp. He desired her.
Why would he deny himself?
Squaring her shoulders, she went after what she wanted. Her running shoes tread silently as she entered the barn. At the other end, he dropped the saddle he carried and turned to her. “I asked you to leave.”
Taking a fortifying breath, she let it out with, “I don’t want to leave.” She strode forward, concentrating on one thing. His bite.
Would it be painful? What would it feel like to nourish him?
With a suddenness that startled her, a vision from his vantage point slammed into her mind. He held her in his arms, she was naked, her back against the barn wall, her legs around his waist, her needy core opening to take his hard, hot length inside her. As he surged upward, filling her with his rigid shaft, his mouth came down on her neck.
She gasped and put a hand to her throat. He’d planted the vision in her mind. It was so real. She felt the sweet pressure in her opening, the seductive pain at her neck.
He stood at the far end of the barn, his booted feet spread, his hands fisted, his hat shading his face. “Is that what you want, Emma? It’s a package deal. If you want to know my bite, you have to accept my cock.”
His low, rumbling voice echoed around her, inside her, shooting sparks of desire that centered in her womb. Her lips swelled, ready to accommodate him, juices trickling at the thought of his taking her. “Yes.” It was barely a whisper, but in less than a second, he was in front of her, and she was in his arms.
His mouth opened with a hiss, baring his fangs, huge and gleaming white in the low light of the barn. Emma laced her fingers in his hair, knocking his hat to the floor. She pulled him down for a kiss—and hesitated. Did vampires kiss?
He answered her question by slanting his lips over hers, lapping at her with his tongue, demanding a response until she answered with her own tongue. The kiss was primitive, their breaths mingling, tongues twisting, tasting each crevice, sliding along straight teeth.
Until Emma’s tongue encountered his fang.
He stilled.
She sighed as she touched her tongue to the razor sharpness of his canine. A twinge of pain then a coppery tang filled her mouth. Bliss mellowed her rioting thoughts as he sucked at her tongue, moaning his pleasure at the appetizer.
Stepping back, she tugged off her shirt while he watched, his gaze heating her skin, showing his fangs proudly, breathing heavily.
She unfastened her bra and slid it off, followed quickly by jeans, shoes and finally her panties until she stood naked before him.
He stared, eating her whole with his eyes. “Beautiful.”
Her nipples hardened to points that ached for his touch. “Now you,” she breathed, and reached for his belt buckle.
But before she could touch him, he faded into a blur, and when he came back into focus, he was nude. And gorgeous, muscled and firm. His penis stood hard and long, so perfect she wanted to weep.
“Take me, Kade. Hard and fast this first time.”
“Who said there’d be a second time?” But he was smiling. He walked toward her, stalking her, his movements sure and strong.
She backed away until her butt hit the barn wall, wanting it to be exactly the way she’d seen it in her imagination.
He lifted her, wrapping her legs around his waist.
The touch of his hot prick against her soft lips was rocket fire. Her body convulsed, her hips bucking as she soared so close to an orgasm that she only had to let herself go. But she waited. For him.
His hand moved to her breast, his thumb torturing her nipple. “I want to suck this, Emma. Then make a cut here.” He touched the top curve of her cleavage. “And taste you, see what your blood is like there.”
A picture of it flashed through her mind. It would be sensual, erotic. And her hips bucked again, urging her toward the edge.
His hand moved between their bodies, where he pinched her clit. “Then I’m going to lick this, Emma. Until you come. Then I’m going to press my face into you and lap up your juices.”
“Yes,” she cried, the motion of his fingers had her orgasm tearing at her for release.
Kade grabbed her ass with both hands. “But that’s for later.”
“I…I thought you said there wouldn’t be a ‘later’.”
He chuckled. “I’m a bastard. I should send you home on your little pink bike. But I’m going to keep you here, keep at you until you’ve got nothing left to give.”
“Yes, use me up.” She panted it, her body so close to the snapping point, she had no cognizant thought except holding off until she had him inside her, had his lips fastened to her neck.
“As you wish, my lov
ely Emma.”
The flash of white as he neared her throat should have scared her, but it kicked her lust even higher.
As the sharp tips of his fangs pierced her flesh, jolting her with its sweet ache, he lowered her body fully onto his hard cock. The double onslaught was too much, she soared with the pleasure. Spinning, spiraling, swimming without the need for air. Tingles of release ricocheted through her as he possessed her, devoured her.
The pull of his mouth at her neck, a new and wild sensation. The pistoning in her slick, swollen flesh created a friction that kept her orgasm at full peak.
Long minutes later, he spilled himself into her, and the gush of hot fluid amped up her body. A second, more intense orgasm roared through her, this time dark and heavy, hollowing her out until she knew only feeling, only sensation.
He licked her wounds, and the ache subsided. He kissed her, gently this time. “You are delicious,” he mumbled against her lips.
“How often do you feed?” Her head seemed heavy on her shoulders.
“Once a month, usually.” He looked at her, the blue of his eyes showed concern. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” She smiled. “It was amazing. I’ve never been that high before.”
“Good.” He picked her up in his arms. “Because we have a long night ahead of us.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed his jaw. “So am I to understand—vampires need sex more than once a month?”
He laughed as he carried her to the house and leapt onto the porch. Once inside, he slammed the door behind them. “Between now and next month, when I take your vein again, I’m going to show you how many times a vampire can have sex.”
“You want me to come back again? On my little pink bike?”
He sat her on his bed and crouched at her feet. “I need you any way you can get here, Emma. I’ve never known a woman like you. I want you with me.”
Her heart tumbled as she ran her fingers through her lover’s hair. Nothing she’d experienced in her life compared to the way she felt about him. Pulling him closer, she kissed him gently. “Lock the gate, Kade. I’m here to stay.”
Just One Bite Volume 5 Page 9