Deep is the Night: Dark Fire

by Denise A. Agnew

  He hadn’t said fuck, as men had said to her before. They seemed loathed to speak tender words, and those associated with emotion. Not Lachlan.

  I will say both to you, Erin. I want to fuck you. I want to make love to you. I want you every way I can get you. I will say any words you need to arouse you and make you come.

  Erin gasped in surprise and gratification.

  She dared look into his eyes and all resistance fled without a gasp of protest. “Yes.”

  She ached so much for him, Erin almost ripped open his pants, jumped on him and impaled herself on his cock. The breathtaking idea made her belly tighten with anticipation.

  He clasped her nipples through the material and even through her bra she could feel the tug as he gently began to strum. “Oh, my God, Lachlan.”

  He smiled. “More?”

  “Please.”

  With deliberation, he plucked her nipples non-stop, giving her no safe place to retreat. Erin realized he would show her the measure of her passion and make her acknowledge it. He worked her breasts, tormenting until her nipples stung with longing. She rubbed her thighs together to alleviate the awful tension building to relentless life deep between her legs. She wanted him there, pounding hard until she had the most extreme sexual experience of her life.

  Lachlan released one breast and kissed her. As he tongue plunged inside, he reached for her bra clasp and snapped it open. His big, warm hand cupped her naked skin, and she shivered with delight.

  To show how much she wanted him, she worked at the buttons on his jeans, popping them open one by one. His hand closed over her fingers and stilled her mad rush to release his hardness from its confines.

  His restraint drove her mad and aroused her even more. She decided then and there she must be into torture.

  Suddenly his thumb passed over her nipple. The jolt of pleasure and surprise, the feel of his hot flesh against hers, made her gasp into his mouth. His fingers started a relentless, maddening massage over her entire breast, sweeping across her nipples with enough pressure to create excruciating bliss.

  He released her mouth, and she closed her eyes against the sexual hunger. Lachlan’s hands cupped both breasts and he lavished attention on each globe, his fingers tracing her nipples.

  “Please, Lachlan.”

  This was it. If he didn’t do something to alleviate the throb inside her she would simply die on the spot.

  “Tell me what you want,” he whispered against her nipple, tasting it with tiny flicks of his tongue.

  “More.”

  Obliging, he massaged one nipple with the very tip of his tongue. Heat radiated from the captured bud and spread outward to the rest of her body. She’d never felt this hot, this unable to control her sexual needs.

  “More.” She moaned again.

  He rubbed the nipple, stroking over it with repeated, long laps that included a circling motion. “We’re going to do this until you come.”

  Come? Yes, she’d moved upon his muscled thigh and almost came in her panties, but she tried to imagine a climax caused by Lachlan sucking her breast—

  His mouth sealed over the tip, sucking deep and hard. Erin almost came unglued as she moaned and arched against his body. His index finger barely brushed over her other nipple. The contrast of hard suction and soft touch about drove her insane.

  “Oh, God. Lachlan that feels so good. Don’t stop.”

  Her own hands fluttered over him as she searched out hard muscle, testing the contours of a body she wanted naked and on top of her. Powerful biceps shifted as she gripped them, muscles in his back bunched as she traced her fingers over them. She parted her legs and shifted so she could arch her hips into his rigid cock. He groaned and pressed downward, pinning her still. His movement pressed her clit and she gasped.

  Lachlan continued his torture, and she heard his breath coming rapidly hot against his skin. He closed his mouth over the other nipple and suckled in time with the continual swirling motion of his fingers over her other breast.

  He stopped for a moment and gazed into her eyes, his molten expression enough to tell her that he wanted her very much. “Erin, sweet, you have the most beautiful breasts I ever seen.”

  As his lips brushed over her flesh, her nipples hardened even more. His fingers tugged and rolled and she cried out.

  Arching her back, she groaned as he played with brushes of his thumbs, then tender plucks between thumb and forefinger. Again he suckled, alternating long slow licks with deep pulls. A fire built by steps and degrees between her legs, urged onward by the hard press of his cock. A new rush of moisture dampened the curls between her legs, and the sensation made her ache.

  “Lachlan, I’m begging you.”

  His hot mouth encompassed one nipple, then released it long enough to take it between his teeth. Spikes of staggering arousal hit her as he swirled and darted against the captured nipple with his tongue. He gently pinched her other nipple.

  “Come on, lass. Come for me.” His voice, heavy with fire and husky with demand, sounded sexy as hell. “Come.”

  With lightning quick intensity, she felt the heat gather inside her. Her breathing quickened, her heart raced. She arched into his body and begged. “Please, please, yes.”

  On and on he sucked and licked and strummed her nipples until she thought she’d go insane.

  Fire sparked low in her belly, sweeping downward until it ignited in her hot channel. Heat spilled through her clit in glorious waves. She cried out in surprised delight, amazed at the incredible sensations streaking through her body. As she shuddered, he pressed reverent kisses between her breasts.

  “Lachlan,” she gasped, looking up into his eyes as he gave her nipples one last brush of his fingers. “That was wonderful.”

  Unrepentant and full of mischief, his smile said he loved what he’d done to her. “It was.”

  With a sigh, he levered off of her. “It will be even better when I’m inside you.”

  Even better. Wow.

  His gaze went raw with barely suppressed desire and raged with a hunger that looked almost animal. “Are you afraid?”

  She moved into sitting position and pulled her bra back together, latching the front clasp. She shoved her sweater back down. “Sometimes I am. This is all so quick. I need the evening to get my head on straight and think.”

  Maybe I require the entire century.

  His gaze pinned hers. I will give you an eternity if that’s what you want, lass.

  “You fear what you don’t understand,” he said. He ran his hands through the tangled mess of his hair. “But I told you I willna’ hurt you, and I meant it.” He leaned in a little closer to her, his hot breath puffing across her mouth, and the heat in his eyes continuing to blaze. “I’m at your command. We’ll make love when you ask for it, and not before.” A new pride slipped into his tone, one filled with primal male assurance. “And you will ask me to take you, Erin.”

  As he picked his jacket up off the floor, he gave her a gentle, though predatory smile. “I’ll leave you for now, sweet lass.” He reached for her hand and kissed the back quickly. “Night.”

  Long after he left, she double-checked the locks on her doors. At some point she remembered he hadn’t explained a thing about vampires or how he’d cured her headache.

  * * * * *

  The vampire watched from his high tree perch as she closed the shudders on her windows, wondering if Erin believed the shading would stave off the attentions of someone like him. Did she even realize the implications of what she did? He doubted it.

  She didn’t seem vulnerable, at least not in the way Gilda would be. Ah, yes. Gilda. Soon he would taste the warm, creamy flesh of the woman and know temporary surfeit. Nothing in the night, no mortal flesh, could ever fulfill him the way Erin would. But at least Gilda would seal the void rolling within him and give respite from the piercing hunger the sight of Erin produced.

  She would soon know her soul-mate stood near. Watching. Waiting for the right time to bring
her to his eternal bed.

  Nothing, and no one, could stop him.

  Gritting his teeth against overwhelming lust, he flew into the night and searched for one who would give him surcease. He wanted someone who knew passion and fire and appreciated a hot union with everything in her whore’s heart.

  He felt her unreleased passion calling to him, like a soft message on the cold night wind. She needed a man, wanted one to take away the heavy ache that pulsed through her clit and demanded satisfaction. He sensed she would turn to her own finger if he didn’t satisfy her soon. What a pity to waste a lovely orgasm on her own touch.

  He drifted in the night for some time before he found another woman’s house. He laughed, keeping his voice low so no one would hear. He would enter her bedroom and take the woman without remorse. With a smile and full lust in his groin, he prepared to enter her room and show the woman the excitement only a vampire’s touch could bring. Then, if her loyalty was true, she would be a willing slave and servant to him all her undead eternity.

  * * * * *

  Ronan’s slumber broke as the phone next to his hotel bed rang. He snapped bolt upright, a cry halfway out of his mouth before he stifled it. Pissed, his heart pounding and his reserves depleted from a day in the sun, he reached for the phone with an attitude. He squinted as a strip of sun from under the too short drapes pierced his eyes.

  “What?” he growled into the phone.

  “Ronan Kieran.”

  Deep and full, the voice sounded almost familiar, but not enough to penetrate his perturbation. “Yeah?”

  “You’ve forgotten a good friend after all these years?” The man’s tone rang with mock astonishment.

  The hearty voice on the other side felt like home, though they’d been born on two different continents at different times. Ronan grinned. “You bastard. You wake me up after a couple hours sleep—”

  “Sorry, sorry. I forgot you fang types need your daily beauty sleep.”

  Ronan groaned and propped up against the headboard. He looked down at the sheet that covered his nakedness and remembered he’d been dreaming of Selima and the sweet curves of her new vampire skin. “Daily is right. And I haven’t had much sleep since I got to this country. How the hell did you find me?”

  “I’ve got my sources. I would have come in person but something’s up. We need your help in Pine Forest, Colorado. The ancient one is here.”

  The hair on Ronan’s neck prickled. “Colorado? What the hell is he doing there?”

  “He’s found his mate. A woman he wants to make into a vampire and take with him on his hellish life. Help me, Ronan. You’re the only one who can stop him.”

  Ronan’s throat tightened. “Bullshit. But you knew I’d want to be there to see him die.”

  “Yes.”

  Ronan jammed his hand through his hair, then swung his feet out of bed. He frowned when he saw an insect run from one corner of the room to another. One of the best hotels in Morocco and they had bugs. “We may not be able to kill him.”

  “I thought you said that old man in Morocco could tell you how to kill the ancient one.”

  Ronan grunted. “You wouldn’t believe what he told me. He said I’ll have to be in love, or at least pretending it, to kill the vampire.”

  “Ridiculous.”

  “Exactly. We don’t have time for me to find a woman who’d even be willing to fake love.”

  The deep voice on the line laughed. “From what I’ve heard, just about any woman would fake it if you asked them to. Couldn’t you put them under your thrall—”

  “You know I won’t do that.”

  “Then come here and we’ll think of a solution together. I’m disappointed that Yusuf gave you useless information.”

  “You’re disappointed?” Ronan knew he sounded like a wounded boy, and he covered his eyes with his hand for a moment, revolted. “Look, we’ll think of something. It’ll take me awhile to get there.”

  “He’ll have all the women in the town for lunch before too long.”

  Ronan realized, with that one statement, that maybe the time for true battle had arrived. He’d chased this hell-demon clear across the globe. Maybe now he could settle the score once and for all. Even if it meant seducing a woman to do it.

  Chapter 11

  “Did you see the headlines?” Gilda asked Erin as she stepped up to the library counter. “We didn’t get the paper this morning, but I heard someone saying something about Mrs. Pickles and Jessie Huxley.”

  “Unfortunately, yes.” Erin slipped the Sentinel across the counter toward Gilda. “This is horrible news.”

  Woman Dies From Injuries Inflicted In Attack. Second Woman Attacked And Killed.

  Gilda gasped as she read the article. “Oh, God. Poor Mrs. Pickles. And Jessie. My God.”

  “And to think she was here yesterday flirting with Lachlan like there was no tomorrow and now she’s—” Erin couldn’t finish the sentence, leaving the horrible facts to speak for themselves. “Her children are alone now.”

  Gilda looked up from the paper, her expression grim. “Honey, they have their father. He’ll come from California to get them.”

  Erin shuddered, a relentless chill sweeping over her skin like a tidal wave. “She was so full of vitality and alive when I saw her last.”

  Gilda frowned and put the paper aside as she came around the side of the counter. “Something else is going on here. What is it?”

  Erin clutched her own arms to her body, her blue fleece top and long gray pants didn’t seem warm enough in the echoing, huge room. “Jessie was flirting outrageously with Lachlan the other day, and I was thinking what a—” Erin surveyed the room. “I wished that she’d just disappear out of his life.”

  Ashamed, Erin said a silent apologetic note to the dead Jessie’s soul.

  Gilda’s frown looked worse than a gangster who’d just been told he wouldn’t get paid. “Now don’t blame yourself for this. You didn’t make some creep attack her.”

  “I know, but it’s so strange that it would happen to her when I wanted her out of Lachlan’s life.”

  Gilda smiled grimly. “I’m happy you’re finally realizing how you feel about Lachlan, but the killer attacking Jessie was a coincidence.”

  “I’m surprised you think anything is coincidence in this town.”

  Gilda folded the paper in half, then folded it again so that Jessie’s picture wasn’t in full view. She shoved the paper aside. “This town rates twenty on a one to ten scale of weirdness, but I don’t attribute every weird event to the supernatural.”

  “Jessie was a pain in the butt and a flirt, but she didn’t deserve this. Neither did Mrs. Pickles.”

  Before Gilda could respond, Danny came in the front door and headed their direction.

  “Ladies.” He tipped his cowboy-type hat, his face a mask of determination.

  Gilda held the paper out to him. “What are the police doing about this?”

  Danny’s face turned dour, and she couldn’t blame him. Most of the police officers in town worked hard. No doubt this was one of the biggest crime sprees they’d seen, though, and it must be taking its toll.

  He nodded and his big hands settled on his hips. “We’re putting on extra patrols tonight. We also want women to take extra precautions going home at night until we figure out who is doing this. Erin, are we still on for lunch?”

  Gilda’s grin said she approved, but Erin tried to ignore Gilda’s satisfied look. “Noon it is.”

  “I’ll pick you up.”

  Erin kept her resolve. “I’ll meet you there. None of these attacks occurred during the day. The perpetrator isn’t likely to change his pattern, is he?”

  Danny shook his head. “Doubtful.”

  “Who do you think attacked these women?” Gilda asked as she ran both her hands through her hair in a show of nervousness.

  “Any leads we have at this time are confidential,” Danny said. “I’d like to tell you but—”

  “But then he’d hav
e to kill you,” Erin said with a grin. She wanted to lighten up the thick tension hovering in the room. Palpable and frightening, the apprehension seemed to cling to the very walls.

  Gilda and Danny joined in her soft laugh, and relief settled the tight sensation in her stomach.

  “Say, did the library have that structural engineer come in and check this place out?” Danny asked. “You know, because of the noises you heard the other night.”

  Gilda nodded. “Earlier this morning before the library opened. Apparently there’s nothing wrong with the place.”

  Danny shrugged, appearing unconcerned. “Well, that does it then. Nothing more to worry about.” He glanced at Erin and gave a wide grin, as if his reassurance would make her feel safe. “Maybe Erin imagined the noises.”

  Erin’s defenses came up, but she kept her response cool and calm. “I wasn’t the only one who heard it. Lachlan Tavish did, too.”

  Danny sniffed and tucked his thumbs in his gun belt. The leather creaked. “Maybe he’s been living in drafty castles for too long. Doesn’t know what he’s hearing.”

  The unusual put-down grated against her like saw against bone. She felt her shoulders go back. She lifted her chin. “I’m sure he knows what he heard, just as I know what I heard.”

  With his smile fading by degrees, Danny took a step back. The sparkle of amusement disappeared in his smile. Now his grin seemed plastered on like a clown’s.

  Gilda cleared her throat. “Well, we should get back to work.”

  Relieved at the escape hatch, Erin turned away from Gilda and Danny and began to work. Her progress was impeded several times by her traitorous thoughts. She’d known Danny longer than she had Lachlan, and yet she still felt compelled to defend Lachlan against Danny’s not-so-subtle insults.

  Gilda said nothing about Erin’s coffee date with Danny, or his statement about Lachlan. Erin couldn’t help being relieved. She didn’t feel like deflecting conjecture about dating. Not when she’d told Gilda she didn’t want to get involved with anyone right now.

  Yet she was involved with Lachlan whether she wanted to be or not. In less than a couple of days the man had turned her inside out with his scorching looks and passionate caresses.