Out of the Dark (Forbidden Love)

by Danielle James

  Keelie put her arm around Brea’s waist. “Wow,” she said.

  “Tell me about it,” Brea whispered. It was then when Keelie broke the spell that Brea realized she was crying. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and opened the door to the recording room.

  Angel was removing the various wires from his body when Brea leapt into his arms. Her decision was made. All her life, Brea dreamed of someone who would love her completely and unconditionally. Someone who would cherish her every day for the rest of forever. And he was there, whispering sweet words of love and affection in her ear in a variety of languages.

  How could she have been so blind? How could she have been so hard on Angel for giving her what she had always wanted from a man? Brea felt the bite of guilt in her gut for being so unforgiving to the man who lived and would probably die for her. She had not completely understood how he felt before then.

  Brea had not known exactly how she felt about Angel before then. The feeling welling in her chest answered all her questions. She loved him. Not the rock star, not the vampire, but she loved Angel. The man.

  Brea tightened her grip around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I forgive you.”

  Angel heard the words he had so longed to hear. He was forgiven. He tilted her face up and took her lips in a soul searing kiss. He only broke the kiss long enough to lift Brea into his arms and carry her at inhuman speed from the recording studio. On the way out, he was sure he heard Keelie saying, “See, I told you it would work.”

  Angel collapsed, sated, on top of Brea. He shifted his weight just enough to one side so that he wouldn’t crush her. Their love making had been hasty, with little foreplay. It seemed neither one could get close enough to the other fast enough.

  Sweating and breathing hard, Angel disconnected their bodies. “That was nice,” Brea said.

  “Nice?” Angel gasped. “I thought it was better than nice.”

  “Well, I’ve had better,” Brea teased.

  “When?” Angel snapped. Had she been with someone else while he was busy moping and starving?

  “On your birthday, silly,” she laughed at his expression.

  “Oh,” Angel said, relieved. “I can try again, if you like. I wouldn’t want to leave you wanting.”

  “I think I should rest a minute,” she chuckled. “Besides, I want to talk.”

  “What about?”

  “What’s it like, being mated?”

  Angel thought over his answer carefully. He sighed a long sigh before answering. “It’s wonderful. I have never felt so alive, so complete. I would have never thought that I would enjoy belonging to someone, but I do. I feel like I have purpose. I fear I can not fully describe the way being filled with so much love makes me feel.”

  “I see. How do you do it?”

  “What, become mated?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I know it happened when I drank from you, but that’s about it. How does it work? Surely not every time someone drinks from a vampire during sex ends up in mating.”

  “You’re right,” Angel said. “It has to be at the time of orgasm. The person or vampire has to willingly give the one feeding everything. Body, soul, and heart. Even then, if the match isn’t right, the mating won’t take.”

  “So if you weren’t meant to be mine, you wouldn’t have that tattoo?”

  “Right. I swear Brea, I didn’t intend to do it without telling you. I was just so full of emotion at the time and I acted without thinking.”

  “I told you that you are forgiven. I only hope you can forgive me for the way I handled it,” she said, looking away. She was ashamed for the way she had acted.

  “It is already done,” he said, kissing her head.

  “So, will I have a tattoo also?” she asked.

  “Yes, if you want it. There are other benefits as well. If you drink from me regularly, your own body’s aging process will slow drastically. You will essentially become immortal. Not to mention you will gain the power to heal quickly, likely never get sick, and you will be able to tap into my power when you need to.”

  “Cool. I heard that some can talk to each other with their minds. Is that true?”

  “Often times, a vampire and his mate share a telepathic connection. Sometimes it is as simple as knowing the other’s feelings and emotions, other times they can carry on full conversations without uttering a single spoken word.”

  “I felt your pain, when, you know,” she drawled.

  They spent a few minutes in silence, lightly caressing each other and just being together. Brea shifted herself so that she faced Angel. She was drawing little circles on his bare back with her fingers, occasionally toying with his raven hair. He looked very close to falling asleep.

  “Angel,” Brea said in little more than a whisper.

  “Hmm?” he said without moving his lips.

  “I love you.”

  “Je t’adore, Mon Amour,” he whispered before falling asleep. Brea smiled and let sleep take her.

  Brea woke to the feeling of Angel’s hands caressing her back. He was lazily drawing patterns on her skin from the nape of her neck to the small of her back. “Good morning, Mon Amour,” he said.

  “Morning?” Brea asked sleepily.

  “Oui, it is only ten o’clock,” he said, replacing his hands with his lips. He dragged his mouth down her spine. He paid special attention to her tail bone. When Brea’s hips lifted of their own accord, Angel silently laughed. “Have you rested enough?”

  “Um hmm,” Brea murmured.

  “Good. I feel the need to prove myself for some reason. Someone mentioned that I wasn’t at the top of my game last night.”

  He moved up her body and kissed the back of her neck. She arched to give him better access, but he tilted her chin and slanted his mouth over hers. Brea forgot all about everything but the movement of his lips and tongue. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and devoured her with his need to be inside her.

  His body stretched over hers and his cock dug into her backside. Brea arched into him and he groaned. At this rate he wouldn’t last very long. He forced his hand underneath her and pushed his fingers into her wetness.

  When Angel was certain she was ready to explode, he flipped her over and paid homage to her breasts. He moved his worshipping mouth down her stomach and over her hips. She was bucking beneath him, trying to get more stimulation. But Angel had a point to prove. He bypassed her apex and kissed the inside of her thighs. By then she was begging him for more, saying his name again and again. But he continued down until he had kissed both legs and was left with her feet. He sat up and raised one leg to his shoulder. He rubbed her foot gently, then planted a kiss in the arch.

  “Angel, please,” Brea begged. He was killing her!

  Answering her pleas, Angel shoved both of her legs over his shoulders and dropped down. One lick of his tongue proved to be her undoing. Brea shuddered with the force of her climax, but Angel did not back off. He drew her little nub between his teeth and sucked for all he was worth. One orgasm blended into the next, and Brea was shouting out her approval.

  “Please, stop,” she breathed. “It’s too intense.” There were tears on her cheeks. Angel pulled her up so that she was straddling him, her legs around his back. She reached between their bodies to grasp him in her hand. He threw his head back and growled. But when Brea tried to guide him into her, he stopped her.

  “Not yet.” Brea arched her brow at him, but he paid it no mind. In a movement too fast for Brea to see, he cut himself across the throat. A small line of blood appeared. Knowing what he wanted, Brea sealed her mouth over the small cut and sucked.

  Angel leaned back with both his head and body, moaning from the pleasure. “Yes, Baby,” he breathed. Brea was flooded with heat and began to rock her body against his. The pleasure was too intense for Angel. As soon as Brea released him from her hot mouth, Angel pushed himself inside her. The position allowed him access to her breasts, and so he drew a nipple into
his mouth.

  Brea could feel the scrape of his teeth on her skin, but he never broke the surface. Knowing how good it felt when he bit her with their clothes on, she could only imagine what it would be like at that moment. “Do it,” she told him.

  “Yeah?” he asked. He was giving her time to back out.

  “Yes, please,” she moaned. Angel could not deny her anything she wanted, and so he did. He pierced the skin of her shoulder in time with the thrust of his body. She cried out for him, bucking harder against him.

  “Yes!” she cried, finding her way back to the healing cut on his neck. Angel had every intention of stopping before Brea climaxed. But there was no warning. Her body coiled tightly around him and she shattered into a million pieces as Angel found his own crest.

  TWENTY NINE

  Angel was pretending to be asleep. His friends would call him chicken, or worse, but he just couldn’t make himself open his eyes. He feared what Brea’s reaction would be when she got out of the shower and saw her naked body in the mirror.

  They had spent most of the day in bed, finally falling asleep around one in the afternoon. After only three hours of sleep, Angel found himself awake. He watched Brea sleep for the next hour, his gaze transfixed on the red and violet tattoo of swirling lines on her left breast. The more he looked at it, the more he thought it resembled a fairy. Or perhaps, an angel, if he would indulge his imagination. It was the color of her hair and eyes combined, beautifully accenting her pale skin. The mark appeared over her heart sometime mid-morning.

  Angel did not know exactly when Brea decided, if she had consciously decided, to give herself to him. On the one side, Angel was elated. She was his! She would stay with him forever. There was nothing he had wanted more in the great span of the universe. But, on the other hand, he was terrified. What if she had not done it consciously? How would she react?

  Brea had a very strong reaction to Angel giving himself to her, and he could not chase it from his mind. He worried over it excessively as he watched her sleep peacefully at his side. When Brea finally woke, Angel feigned sleep until she was out of bed and in the bathroom.

  He heard the water in the shower shut off and he braced himself. At first, there was only the sound of Brea getting out and drying herself. Angel could count the amount of time she took to dry and dress. Brea wasn’t one to piddle in the bath. When he was certain she had enough time to finish, he stood up. He would go in there and face whatever wrath she chose to inflict. But then it happened.

  “Angel!!” Brea shouted from within the bath. “Get in here, Now!”

  Angel dragged a difficult breath and forced himself into the room with the little spitfire.

  “Look!” she said, pointing to the tattoo. Angel was confused. He had walked in prepared for Brea to be angry with him, but she was smiling. Could it be? Was Brea as happy as he was?

  “It is beautiful,” Angel remarked with a smile.

  “I know! I love it!”

  “Just the mark?” Angel asked carefully. “You do know what it symbolizes, right?”

  “Of course I do! I was wondering where it would appear, or if it would appear at all,” she babbled. “I’m just glad it didn’t show up somewhere weird like on my face or something.”

  “Do you prefer that no one sees it?”

  “No, no!” Brea gasped. “that’s not what I meant, I just, well, I wouldn’t want any tattoo on my face, no matter how precious it is. I wouldn’t care if it were on my neck like yours or my leg or arm or whatever. Just not the face.”

  Angel breathed a sigh of relief. “I so had hoped you wouldn’t mind,” he said.

  “Why would I mind?” she asked, turning to get a look at it in the mirror from another angle. “I did it on purpose.” That statement caused Angel’s smile to turn into a blinding grin.

  “Which time?” he asked. She had asked him to bite her several times over the course of the morning, and she had returned the favor as well.

  “Every time. I wanted to make sure it stuck,” she answered sheepishly. “Oh, I gotta go show Keelie!” she exclaimed, trouncing out of the room in little more than her towel.

  “Brea wait!” he called to her, but she was already gone. Angel grabbed a pair of jeans and tugged them on quickly. He then raced downstairs after Brea. The last thing he needed was his woman running around the house half naked.

  Angel found his family, along with Keelie, standing in a circle around Brea. She had all but dropped the towel completely to show off her new mark. Angel felt a swell of pride in his chest, but pushed it away in order to stop her from parading around naked.

  “Well, good evening,” Sebastian said to Angel with a smile. “I take it you had a good day?”

  “Smart ass,” Angel growled back. He fixed his attention on Brea. “Ma Cherie, what are you doing?” he asked politely.

  “I was showing off my mark. What does it look like?”

  “Parading around half naked?” Angel suggested.

  “We don’t mind,” Rebel said, the rest of the men chuckled.

  “Well I do, please, go get dressed.”

  “You know, now that I’m bound to you, I’m surprised by just how free I feel. I could run through the yard naked and I don’t think I would care, so long as the whole world saw my mark.” Brea was eyeing the door as she talked.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Angel warned.

  “Is there an ‘or else’ in there?” she teased.

  “Yes,” Angel frowned.

  “Or else what?” she demanded.

  “Brea..” he started, but it was again, too late. She was headed out the door. “Damn it,” Angel spat and chased after her. He did manage to catch her just in time. He tossed her over his shoulder and packed her up the stairs. He thought he would get more protest out of her about it, but Brea just put her hand under her chin and waved at his family as Angel carried her away.

  “Well, I guess that’s one way to get you to take me upstairs,” Brea laughed.

  “You mean you planned this?” Angel said incredulously.

  Brea answered with a smile and set her hands to work on the button of his jeans.

  “I just have to call Detective Corbin with the list of vampires who will help him with his investigation. Then I will be ready, I promise,” he soothed Brea. He had promised to take her out to celebrate, but the night was growing late.

  “Hurry up,” she said, leaving him alone to make his call. When that was done, Angel and the rest of the crew left for a local club. Angel was exceedingly happy and was too busy looking at Brea in her tight fitting low cut dress and how it showed off her mark to notice the vampire who stood among the fans at his gate.

  Chase opened his cell phone and dialed. “It is completed,” he said into the phone. “Yes, I will follow.” He snapped his phone shut and walked to the local vampire bar.

  THIRTY

  Brea woke the next day with one hangover from hell. Her head was pounding and she could scarcely open her eyes with the lights on. “Ugh,” she complained to herself, “I know better.”

  She had celebrated all right. She drank herself silly. Brea was even having trouble remembering parts of the previous evening.

  After dragging herself through the shower and dressing, she went downstairs to the dining hall where everyone was waiting for her. Most of the guys were nice, but Gage felt the need to pick at Brea for her actions.

  “Knock it off,” Angel had warned him.

  Brea placed her hand over Angel’s and smiled. “It’s ok, really. It is my fault. I can’t expect to be here all the time and not be treated like everyone else.” Then she turned to Gage, “Just remember, all’s fair in love and war.”

  Gage looked unimpressed, but Angel laughed. “I would heed her warning if I were you.”

  Frieda appeared with a steaming cup of coffee and two aspirins. “Thanks,” Brea told her.

  “Brea and I are going shopping this afternoon,” Keelie chimed in. “If she still feels like it,” she added.<
br />
  “Sure, I can’t wait. Just let me get some caffeine in my system first.”

  The pair went out, Ricco as their escort, to shop at the mall. Ricco was following along behind the women, grumbling something unintelligible from time to time. He was head of security, not a babysitter. But he had to admit, he enjoyed what little time with Keelie that Brea would allow. Not that he was jealous or anything. He had already learned that if he wanted in the conversation, he was going to have to do something drastic to get their attention. He was to keep the girls safe while the others were bound inside by the sun. He was to keep them in his sight at all times. But damn if that wasn’t a job in and of itself! The girls flittered from sales rack to sales rack, and store to store, like hummingbirds pollinating an entire park. They had already left Ricco behind twice. Not that they intended to, Ricco just couldn’t keep up. It was when the women went to the restroom together that Ricco had a spare minute to call Angel and report that all was especially, mind numbingly, boringly well.

  “Do you like the sweater I got at Maurice’s?” Keelie asked, fluffing her hair in the mirror.

  “I told you that I do,” Brea answered.

  “Why aren’t you buying more stuff? I mean, Angel gave you his bank card. I would be tearing that bad boy up if I were you.”

  “I’m not you,” Brea answered. “I don’t like spending his money. I feel like I don’t have the right, you know?”

  “You are mated with him! You might as well be married. You know, what’s yours is mine and all?”

  “But we aren’t married,” Brea pointed out.

  “Maybe you should get that way,” Keelie suggested.

  “He hasn’t brought it up,” Brea pointed out with a twinge of disappointment.

  “He may not realize that it’s important to you. You should bring it up.”

  “Gah,” Brea gasped. “You mean I should propose to him? No way! I couldn’t do that.”