She was partly right. Ruan didn’t spend much time in there, other than stocking up for a night out—there was no point in keeping it up. The place was loaded with all the essentials—guns, knives, grenades, ammo belts, stakes, first aid kits. The usual. It was, however, where he paid his bills. And to his credit, the walls were full of dusty old volumes of Vampire Lore and Therian History books.
Okay, so maybe they were both right—an office on steroids.
Gripping Eve tighter, Ruan mirrored her step-by-careful-step, until he had her backed against a large support beam in the center of the room. She gasped when he thrust against her hips with a little too much enthusiasm. He would’ve been worried he hurt her, but her light eyes sparkled with desire.
“You shouldn’t have come out while they were still here, my love. It wasn’t safe.”
Her hands grazed up and down his back. He arched in approval as heat flooded his body. “Looks to me like you were the one sporting the blue paint tonight. Didn’t think I could shoot, huh?”
“Nope,” he lied. After being with her for four of the most tumultuous weeks of their lives, there was nothing he didn’t think she could do anymore. “Not if the prey jumped up and bit that tight little ass of yours.”
“Then you shouldn’t have left me so long. I was starting to wonder if you’d forgotten about me.” Her teasing pout pulled into a smile that made his heart shift awkwardly in his chest. “Are you planning to finish what we started earlier or am I going to have to crawl into bed by myself again?”
He hated leaving her at night, curled into the sheets of their bed. But he didn’t have much choice. Forcing himself to stay up during the day only meant he was apartment-bound. Not a lick of fun when the only thing showing on CrimsonTV late-day was Days of Our Eternities and Guiding Night. No, staying up at night was a must, although watching her sleep by herself was killer.
At least they had these few hours to be together. When the sun set. Before she had to hit the hay for work in the morning. Someday, when he provided enough that she didn’t have to work, they could spend more time together. Night and day. For now their time was precious. Passionately, wildly, impulsively precious.
Cupping her face, Ruan kissed her square on the mouth, then drew back to take in the breathtaking features of her face. Her petite button nose begged to be kissed on the tip. Her unique eyes, the right hazel, the left muted blue, revealed more brilliance than priceless speckled jewels. Her silky blonde hair was sleek and straight, tied back into a ponytail. And her lips—those soft, pouty, irresistible lips—anywhere but two breaths away was too far from them. She felt so incredible in his arms. So perfect. How could she even think he’d forget her? “You didn’t leave my mind for a second.”
She smiled, a playful gleam in her eye. “Then what are you waiting for?”
He ran his fingers around the curve of her neck and dragged her mouth to his. Her lips parted for him, opening wide. Slipping inside, he twisted his tongue along hers, languidly first, then with more urgency, taking what she offered. Need scorched through his veins, depleting the blood flow from his brain, tunneling it straight south to his groin.
Hot, fevered strokes of her tongue sparked something deep within him. The primal need to take her, here and now. Against this post. On the tattered wood floor. Against the mounds of carpet padding. In the office—weapons room—whatever. Wherever.
Ruan popped open the fly of her jeans and slid them to the floor, her lace panties in tow. His mouth devoured hers. She whimpered into him when he pressed against her, palming her breasts over her clothes. He could sense her lust like it was his own. Desire rising until it choked her breath, weakening her knees. It was like throwing oil on a raging inferno.
She wanted him as much as he wanted her.
With a jerk, he hiked up her leg and wrapped it around his waist. He ran his hand the length of her smooth thigh, down, around and underneath, the ache in his stomach clenching into a fist as he found her wet center. Good Lord, she was so wet. Hot. Scorching.
He needed to drown in her warmth before the animal part of him took complete control, forcing him to do something he’d regret. No matter how difficult it was, he needed to be careful. He was on a slippery slope with Eve.
Unable to completely surrender to pleasure.
Like every other time they’d been intimate, the insatiable need to drink her blood triggered a chemical chain of events in his body. His fangs hummed, dropping into place. His veins throbbed in greedy anticipation. His mouth ached to suck at her vein, draining her dry, as his cock screamed to thrust inside her, filling her up.
The willpower to keep his fangs on lockdown suffered each blood-pumping second.
Unable to stop the heady progression, Ruan slid his finger inside her. He groaned, feeling her clenching around him. She breathed little sighs of pleasure with each gentle stroke, arching against the beam at her back.
He wanted more. Had to have more.
As he pulled back, open mouthed, struggling for air, she took the opportunity to tug his shirt up and over his head. He tossed it to the floor and returned the favor with her sweatshirt. Near frantic, pulse through the roof, he wrestled out of his jeans, then dove into her mouth again, his hands griping the soft round of her bottom, her plump breasts, then palming the flat span of her stomach.
“You’re hard as a rock,” she sighed against him, sliding a hand down to his straining erection. “Oh, God.”
He moaned as her tiny hand stroked him. The pressure in his head was too great. The war inside him too loud. Take her. Plunge inside. Claim her. Drink her blood. Drain her dry. Keep her safe. Let go. Stay close. Stay back.
God, what was she doing to him? He had to taste some part of her or he’d burst.
Detaching from the sinful perfection of her mouth and the touch of her hand, Ruan lowered his head to her breasts. Perfectly rounded mountains of pink flesh, begging to be sucked and pinched, licked and bit. He raked his fingers across her bottom. Dug into the soft flesh. Licked a slow, thick trail from the bottom of her breast to her nipple, then suckled it right into his mouth.
Eve tangled her fingers through his hair, taking in short, sharp breaths with every nip and mock bite. Ruan could hear the speed of her pulse. Could see the fluttering of her vein on her jugular above him. More than that . . . he could feel the rush of hot blood through her veins.
He swallowed down the bloodlust spiking in his core, urging him to bite through her breast and suck the blood pulsing just beneath the pale sheath of her skin.
He rose up to meet her face. He’d always been able to stop himself from feeding by gazing into her heavenly brown-green eyes. No matter what, he wouldn’t . . . couldn’t . . . feed from her. It would put everything he stood for into jeopardy. Vampires didn’t hurt humans. They protected them. Cared for them.
And he was head over heels in love with Eve. Would do anything to save her from a vampire selfishly digging his fangs into her—even if they were his own.
Except when he met Eve’s eyes, the tender look he’d counted on was long gone. All that remained was liquid desire swirling in the depths of her dual-colored irises. Her color was pale. Her breathing jagged. She was close to losing control.
In no way shape or form able to help him gain his.
“Put your mouth on me,” she breathed, her fingers roped in his hair.
It didn’t take two heartbeats for Ruan to grab her waist and lower her to the floor. He stretched her out before him and spread her legs wide. With little control left in his trembling body, Ruan drove his tongue into her. Her hips bucked. He laid a hand flat on her stomach, pressed her down, and swirled his tongue like a lust-driven madman on a feeding frenzy.
Licking up and down her center with cruelly wide strokes, Ruan gazed up the length of her body. Her legs were curved at his ears, her back arching high, her breasts rising up, her mouth gaping open.
Holy hell, he was about to lose it just from making her come.
As the first
wave of her orgasm hit, she reared up. His tongue flittered in and out of her faster. Harder. Hotter. She screamed. Her racing pulse and the sudden rush of blood to her core made his eyesight double over.
He pulled back, his own climax a touch away, his fangs pulsing with exhilaration.
In a heart-flicker, passion flamed to unbridled bloodlust.
For the second time in his life, the vampire in Ruan reigned, silencing the man within. Wild with hunger, Ruan rubbed the silken gloss from her pleasure onto her inner thigh. Sank his fangs into her. Took the hardest, most erotic draw of his life.
And for the second time in his life, he regretted it—the moment Eve howled in pain.
About the Author
Kristin Miller is the author of Dark Tide Rising, a romantic suspense and the Vampires of Crimson Bay series, a paranormal series featuring a blood war between vampires and shape-shifters from Avon Impulse. She lives in Northern California with her family.
Also by Kristin Miller
Dark Tide Rising
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
INTERVAMPTION. Copyright © 2011 by Kristin Miller. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Excerpt copyright 2011 by Kristin Miller
EPub Edition August 2011 ISBN: 9780062105202
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062115737
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