by Holly Ryan
The static noise blared loud enough to shiver my brain and make my eyes wobble. I stumbled off toward the gate, my head hammering. The world began to sag at the edges the closer I drew to the gate, tunneling my vision through black voids on either side. The wing of an angel statue caught me as I tripped, and when I blinked upward, her stone face was melting. The statue’s eyes stared as they dripped down her cheeks. Fangs stretched between her drooping lips, and somehow the statue reminded me of Paul. Like an angel of death sent to take me out before my twenty-first—before my twentieth—birthday.
“Lovely night...”
No. Stop. Why were those words coming out of my mouth?
Terror chased up my back, threatening to consume me if unconsciousness didn’t. I didn’t know what Paul was smoking, but it most definitely was the opposite of a lovely fucking night.
I hauled myself forward and through the gate, clinging to the cold iron bars toward the only place that had felt like home in a long time, a pinpoint in the growing night. The distance stretched farther as if taunting me. I didn’t know if I could make it. A cry for help tipped my tongue, something I never did, never asked for, but I had no doubt that it would come.
“Help me,” I whispered.
The bite between my thighs tingled. The door flew open. A dark blur barreled out. Moonlight glinted in a pair of black glasses half hidden underneath a mop of blond hair. Strong arms enveloped me, and suddenly I was floating, adrift into safety, far away from that stroll through a not-so-lovely night.
Chapter Six
I jerked awake. The room came into focus one slow blink at a time. Hovering above my face was Eddie, fangs bared, eyes glowing red, but that wasn’t what twisted my stomach. A long drop of blood trickled down his wrist, which he held over my mouth. I already tasted something on my lips, like blood, but sweeter.
Eddie’s worried gaze came into focus next. “I have to give you more, Sunshine. It’s this or the hospital. You’re bleeding too much, and your slayer healing isn’t kicking in fast enough.”
That was his blood I tasted. Vampire blood. I didn’t know the exact consequences for a slayer to drink vamp blood, but I didn’t exactly have time for a trip to Eddie’s library to find out.
“Vampire...” I breathed.
He shook his head, able to read my doubts from that one simple word. “You’re the slayer. It takes a lot more than vampire blood to turn you into one of us.”
Trusting him more than most anyone, I opened my mouth, and he settled his wrist on my lips. The sweet, cool nectar rolled down over my tongue, perking every taste bud along the way. Power surged down my throat toward the hole near my heart, leaving behind a numb, pleasant feeling. The power sank lower into my belly, and then lower still, gathering at my inner thighs near where Eddie had bitten me.
I moaned into his wrist and went to bring my hands over it to keep feeding from him, but they were caught above my head by something unseen. Rough skin grazed my palms, fueling the power like a welcomed distraction. Was that Sawyer, out of sight and quiet, keeping me from touching Eddie while I drank from him?
Eddie’s red eyes darkened as he gazed down at me, hungry as if sensing exactly where his blood had gone inside me. I wanted to beg him to touch me, to feel his power throbbing inside my pussy, but I couldn’t tear my mouth away from his wrist. My body writhed, and even though Sawyer—and Jacek?—was there, too, I only had eyes for Eddie right then. It was his blood inside me. Maybe it was the blood high talking, but I needed him inside me, too.
“Okay. That’s good,” he rasped and gently pulled his wrist back. He locked eyes with me as he slowly licked the spot on his arm I’d been attached to.
I whimpered for the same kind of attention, but my eyelids suddenly grew heavy, too heavy to keep open. Dreams pulled me under even deeper, all of them about Eddie, my wild bookworm vampire, fucking me every which way, even sideways. His blood was a sex drug, like a pill for the slayer that cranked my dial from horny to porn star in 0.7 seconds.
Sometime later, I moaned myself awake, panting in a dark room. Soft sheets touched my skin, and I realized I was naked. Naked and alone. Well, that just wouldn’t do.
Gingerly, I reached below the sheet, patting for any holes that shouldn’t be there. Everything on my chest felt normal, though flushed hot and aching. Just to take the edge off, I touched for holes that should be there, and sank two fingers into the one that pulsed with need. Oh. Fuck, I was wet. I grinded against my palm and drove my fingers in deeper, but what I really wanted was Eddie. Surely he was here somewhere.
I climbed out of bed, double checking to make sure there wasn’t any pain in my body, and then crept toward the sliver of light underneath the closed door. After pulling it open a crack, I realized I was across the hall from the library upstairs. There was another door next to this one, half closed with warm, welcoming light spilling from inside.
Was that Eddie in there? My breathing snagged at the thought of him so close, and I floated toward the door in a sort of sexual trance. It wasn’t until my fist was poised to knock that I realized I was still naked. Oh well. It would save us time. That was just good forethought right there.
“Come in, Sunshine.” His voice sounded from inside, rawer and deeper than usual, and it unfurled his blood inside me like a powerful song. It stormed to every part of me, leaving me breathless with want.
I barged in there like it was mating season for bigfoots, but then I stopped. Even in my haze, I had to appreciate the view. He lay in bed, his back propped against pillows on the headboard, with a laptop within easy reach and a book in one hand. A perfect six-pack rippled up the expanse of his stomach, and defined pecs and well-muscled shoulders rounded off his torso into an A+ package. He’d put his fangs away, which was a shame, but the way he looked at me, his amber eyes ablaze, tingled the bite between my legs so much I clenched my knees together. A sheet pooled low around his waist, showing most of the sharp V of his hip bones. And underneath the sheet, pressing hard against it in high-definition was his long, rigid cock.
I’d never seen Eddie naked before, but it should definitely be a constant thing.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he growled.
“Me too.” I took steps closer to the bed, pulled by the invisible livewire between us.
“Do you remember what happened before you got here?”
“Yes.” Though it seemed like a lifetime ago. “I’ll tell you everything, but first I need...” I reached for his foot but then flinched back at the last second. He didn’t like to be touched, and I wanted to respect that. The last thing I wanted to do was make him uncomfortable. “Eddie, I don’t—”
“Stop, Sunshine. Stop thinking and get under this sheet with me,” he said, his voice commanding. “I’ll make the rest very easy.” The last part sounded like a promise wrapped in a divine, sparkly bow.
Well, when he put it like that, I wasn’t about to argue.
I crawled on top of the bed and stalked next to his long, lean body on all fours, careful not to touch. He watched me through his glasses, and something about the look he gave me guaranteed a sleepless night I would never forget. I grinned as I curled up next to him on the pillows, still not touching but close enough to feel the chill emanating from his skin. It felt amazing next to my raging heat.
He carefully closed his book on a bookmark and laid it and his laptop on the nightstand. “What you’re feeling is the blood link, an ecstatic high when you drink blood from another. I felt it when I drank yours, and now you’re feeling it from mine.”
“Is it supposed to make you horny? Hornier, I mean?” Because let’s be honest, in this house, I was in a constant state of arousal. I glanced down at the massive bulge under Eddie’s sheet. “Or are you just happy to see me?”
“I’m happy to see you alive.” He slid out from the sheet and stood, a perfect column of muscle and flesh, his ass a sculpted thing of beauty. “And yes, it does make you horny, but it will fade. Some.” He turned, his lips twitchi
ng, and his fingers wrapped around his hard cock and stroked. “The blood link makes me feel what you feel, more so when you’re near me.”
“Then you know how badly I need you.” I licked my lips as he continued stroking, unable to look away, and my hips rocked forward involuntarily to the rhythm of his quickening fist.
His gaze lit me on fire as he swept it from my head to my toes, lingering to put an extra burn on my breasts and writhing hips. “I need you, too, Sunshine. Spread eagle. Right now.”
I moaned at the raw edge in his voice and fisted my hands into the sheets as I assumed the position so I wouldn’t launch myself at him. After saving my life, respecting his no-touching rule was the very least I could do for him.
He opened one of the drawers in the nightstand and pulled out a bundle of black silk. At first I thought it was a nightgown, but it fell apart when it landed on the bed next to me. Not a nightgown. Black silk scarves. He took one between his hands and started toward my right foot and the bedpost. It felt delightfully chilly as he slipped it underneath my ankle, and I shivered at the roll of goose bumps up my skin.
He watched me through his glasses and the messy tumble of his hair as he tied my foot to the post. “You mind telling me what happened out there tonight?”
“Yes. I mind.” I couldn’t do that now, not when my body demanded something else entirely. When the time was right, I would.
He didn’t say anything else as he quickly bound my other leg and arms. When he was finished, he crawled toward my spread thighs with his tongue braced against his upper lip, his eyes never leaving mine until he ducked between my knees. His lips brushed against my skin, softly kissing his way toward my center, and when he kissed my most sensitive flesh, he pressed harder, flicking out his tongue to lick and suck in short bursts.
I groaned, my body spasming and tugging on my binds, but he’d tied them tight. Then he groaned, thrumming the vibration of his voice straight to my nipples. They hardened painfully, but I soon forgot all about them as his mouth and tongue worked magic.
Then, he pulled back and kissed his way up my body until his arms were posted by my shoulders. With eyes like liquid heat, he lowered his hips to my pelvis, nudging me with the tip of his cock.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he whispered.
“I’m not,” I said, smiling, but I wasn’t 100 percent sure he’d been talking to me.
He thrust forward and sank deep inside of me. We moaned together, mine a breathless plea, his a guttural, animal sound. He dropped his head almost to my chest as his whole body twitched, not coming, just...feeling me for a second, and I had to wonder—was this his first time with actual penetration? No, that couldn’t be. He was too fucking hot, and had incredible skill with that tongue of his. And yet... Actual penetration meant full-body contact. Our first night together, he’d jerked himself off while he’d gone down on me. Still amazing, but this...this was different on so many levels. The intense arousal, the binds to keep me from touching him. If I was right, then that meant I was his first, and damn, that made me feel like I was the most special person ever.
He confirmed it when he lifted his head, his fangs lengthened and red eyes full of wonder, as he began to pound into me.
“Eddie...” I smiled up at him, my chest warming with the permanent home I’d just put there for him.
Something shifted between our locked gazes, reaching beyond lust to a real awareness of each other, and it was powered by trust, which must’ve been exactly what he needed from me. He crushed his lips to mine, retracting his fangs a nibble too late, and fucked me into oblivion. His hands were everywhere, exactly where I needed them, rolling over my aching nipples, wrapping around my hips to drive him in deeper. His chest pressed against mine, so close that he had to feel his trust in me thudding back to him with every beat of my heart. I wished I could hold him to me, but we’d get to that when he was ready.
Now, he was thrusting me toward another explosive orgasm. I broke the kiss with a cry, shuddering at the pressure about to unravel. Eddie groaned into my neck, pumping into me even faster.
“Come with me,” I said.
The muscles inside of me began to contract, and I pressed myself against him so he could feel every bit of my body shatter around his cock. I came, hard, and I took him with me.
He bellowed his release, fangs bared, his wild blond hair a just-fucked, sexy mess. My beautiful vampire Eddie.
We rode our orgasms until we were both spent, and then he flopped down on top of me careful not to crush me, and pressed his lips to my neck. We were molded together as one, his body fitting over mine and inside me, perfectly. I tugged on the binds in a futile attempt to wrap him closer, but he seemed content as he was, so long as he was in control of the touching. Whatever he needed, I would give it to him, but again I wondered why. Was it some kind of past trauma? My heart squeezed for him if that were the case. I hated the idea of my Eddie suffering in any way.
He nuzzled my temple. “I can hear you thinking, Sunshine,” he murmured.
“I’m thinking about you.” I closed my eyes at his touch, fighting the urge to rub my cheek against his. “Thank you for fixing my blue bean.”
He chuckled, a warm sound that expanded my chest. “What?”
“Blue bean. Guys get blue balls without an orgasm, and ladies get blue bean. It’s the part—”
“I know the part.” He smiled into my hair. “I’m quite familiar with the female anatomy.”
“I can tell.”
He pulled back slightly to look down at me. “But not with the whole...experience.”
I nodded, since I didn’t want things to get awkward if I pretended I had no idea what he was talking about. “You were perfect.” I turned my head to look at him so he’d know I meant it, though his smile hinted that he didn’t really need his ego stroked. He knew he’d done good.
His gaze searched my face like a loving caress. “I wanted you, before I tasted you here...” He brushed his lips over mine. “And here.” He rolled his hips forward, his cock still inside me and stiffening once again.
“You’ve wanted me since you smelled my dripping desire and sunshine?”
He shook his head, the ends of his hair tickling my jaw. “Not just that. There was something else. Something inside you.”
“And what was that?”
“Loss. As clear as the blue in your eyes.”
An ache speared through my chest, almost as familiar as Mom herself. But I saw the same thing in him, too. He tried to hide it behind his glasses and shaggy hair and a stack of books, but it was there, a pain that he’d likely carried with him for a long time. For him to be a breath away from me, touching me from head to toe, and making himself vulnerable by talking about this choked my throat with tears. He trusted me, had given me his virginity, was baring his soul even though he hadn’t yet admitted his loss, and neither of those was something I could ever take lightly. Trust was clearly an issue for him, so I swore to myself I would keep it close to my heart and never betray it.
“We have time for explanations,” he said, pushing himself up so his arms bracketed my head, “but the first one we’d all like to hear is about what happened to you.” He pulled out, a soft smile on his handsome face, and stood to untie me, his naked body a thing of beauty. “Sleep now, though, next to me. We’ll talk in the morning when you’re rested.”
He wanted me to sleep with him? Little did he know I slept like a fish, a floppy, touchy-feely fish. Once he’d untied me, I scooted toward the pillows as he climbed underneath the sheet with his book and laptop.
“What if I...touch you?” I asked.
“Touch me?” He frowned as he pulled up another book on his laptop and opened the worn one in his hands, and it was then I realized that two-handed reading was the sexiest kind of reading. With a look that sped my heartbeat into a wild gallop, he settled back into the pillows next to me. “You already have, Sunshine.”
Chapter Seven
This was my new favorite
time of day. Eight forty-five p.m., after the sun had set and night fell, was the hottest, at least in the vampire nest’s kitchen. Because that was when Jacek and Eddie stumbled in with bedhead, sexy, sleepy smiles, and with morning wood. All of it—the whole, ahem, package—drove the air form my lungs. That feeling should have dropped me to the ground with oxygen deprivation. Which would require mouth to mouth...
“Belle?” Jacek had his hands posted on the table near my biology homework. He leaned in, dressed in nothing but boxers, and peered at me with his amber-colored eyes, his customary grin firmly in place. His short, dark hair stuck up on either side like devil horns, which snapped me back to reality. I’d had enough devils to last me a lifetime, both the real and the unnamed ones.
“Where did you go just now?” he asked.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about”—morning wood—“how this is my favorite time of day. Right now when you guys wake up.”
“Mine too,” he said on his way to the refrigerator. “I could get used to seeing your pretty face right after I get up.”
I could get used to it too. It felt so right being here that I hadn’t even let myself feel guilty when I helped myself to the coffee pot and buttery waffles from the freezer when I’d awoken midafternoon completely refreshed from sleep. I hadn’t had to work today, which was lucky, so I could focus on recovering from last night, checking in with my online classes, and catching up on some homework.
Eddie wandered over from the refrigerator, sipping from a coffee mug that carried a coppery scent. His white button-up shirt only had one button done but was in the wrong hole, and his blond hair stuck out in all directions. I suspected he’d been reading while attempting to get ready. He hadn’t had a whole lot of time to read last night because the kinky black scarves had made an appearance a second and third time. The vamp was a stallion. Not that I minded. Not at all.
He leaned in to catch a quick kiss. “Sleep well?”