“I think the fact that I can’t keep my hands off you is a dead giveaway to that little fact,” I said, grabbing his hands to keep them from further investigating my chest.
He stopped nibbling my neck and pulled back enough to frown at me, his beautiful green eyes narrowed slightly. “Why do you reject me?”
“I’m not rejecting, just delaying, and I’m doing that because I want to make sure that you’re OK.”
“I’m fine,” he repeated, his hands diving back into breast central.
I squirmed out of his hold, rolled off the bed, snatched up his shirt, pulling it on quickly lest my own needs and desire drive me back into his arms. Luckily for my good intentions, the stark, horrifying memory of Alec lying torn apart and bleeding against the ballroom wall was more than enough to sober me up. “So you say, but I’m a doubting kind of person until I can see things for myself.”
“The best way for me to prove to you that I have healed is to make love to you,” he said, gliding toward me with a look that a panther probably gave a particularly succulent bunny in his path.
“No, the best way to prove it is to strip and let me see your—”
He was naked before the words had left my lips.
It took me a few minutes of allowing my gaze to caress the long, mouthwatering stretches of muscle lying so sleekly under skin that I knew was warm and satiny and tasted so very good.... With an effort, I stopped the path down which my brain was heading, and reminded myself that just a short time earlier he had been almost killed. “Nice try, but I refuse to allow you to distract me that way. Now, let me see. . . .”
The blast of power hadn’t acted on Alec with the precision of a bladed instrument, meaning the thick scar that ran from the center of his chest to the top of his shoulder was jagged and uneven. It was also thick, and still red, and when I laid my hand on it, I could feel the heat as the flesh continued to repair itself. I let my fingers move upward to his neck, gently touching the twisting, angry-looking red seam that stretched from his collarbone around the side to the back of his neck. It, too, was hot to the touch.
Alec was clearly in no condition for the acts he so obviously desired, but if I told him that outright, he’d just scorn my concern and do what he wanted—giving me the most profound, intense pleasure without a single thought of whether it would harm him. I couldn’t let him stress himself, obviously, but how was I to stop him? It was useless to tell myself to just ignore the lure he posed, because that just wasn’t possible, and we both knew it.
No, I’d have to tell him he was going to take a new, much more passive role for the afternoon’s activities.
“Are you finished touching me?” Alec inquired politely. “If you are, it’s my turn.”
“No,” I said with a laugh as I pointed to the bed. “Lie down.”
His frown returned. “You are being dominant. Evidently you are under the impression I like that in my Beloved. While it’s true that I’m prepared to explore new things with you, I have never been one to take enjoyment from being passive.”
“Alec, less than an hour ago I thought you were dead. I know you think you’re perfectly fit for lovemaking, but I don’t think you are, not really. However”—I held up a hand to interrupt his protest—“I am willing to admit that you’re absolutely right in that I want you more than anything I can think of, so I’m willing to indulge us both, providing you let me do things my way.”
“What way is that?”
“For one, you let me seduce you. I know that you don’t normally like that, but—” I blinked as Alec, after staring at me for a moment, ripped the blankets from the bed standing across the room, and flung himself down on his back, his hands clasped behind his head, his feet wiggling in anticipation. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Come and seduce me, Beloved,” he said in an arrogant, demanding voice. “I am willing to let you take the lead this once, so long as you do it now, and don’t waste any more time in telling me I’m not healed enough to pleasure you as you deserve.”
I laughed again, and slowly, so as to tease just a little, unbuttoned his shirt that I still wore. His eyes lit with faux outrage as I deliberately took my time working my way down the line of buttons, making sure I stroked my hands over my hips (which seemed to hold some fascination for him) all the way up to my breasts.
“Take off the shirt,” he demanded, his breathing erratic as I stood, considering him for a moment.
“You’re the only man I know who can be simultaneously demanding and submissive.” I started to take off the shirt, pausing at the heat shining so brightly in his gorgeous green eyes. You’re going to seize me the minute I get within range, aren’t you?
Absolutely.
That’s what I thought.
His eyes widened as I grabbed my jeans and jerked them on before turning on my heel and marching out of the room.
Corazon! Where are you going?
Stay there. Alec, I mean it, stay there! Don’t think I don’t know you’re putting your clothes back on and going to come after me, because I know you are, and you can just stop it. I’m going to get something . . . fun. Just get back into bed, and consider how lucky you are to have a Beloved who plans on making you wild with delight.
You make me wild with delight without fetching anything else. And what is it you’re getting? His tone was grumpy, but I knew he could feel the sincerity in my intentions, and was doing as I asked even though it wasn’t what he wanted.
You get extra bonus points for that, I told him. And you’ll see.
He spent the next ten minutes alternating between ranting at the way he would punish me if I didn’t return to him that exact moment and telling me exactly how he wanted to make love to me. The former I ignored, but the latter made it extremely hard to carry on a coherent conversation with Sally, whom I found sitting in a sunny bow-fronted room with Terrin, sipping tea and eating petits fours.
Alec was scowling when I returned to the room Sally had given to us, his glare a truly magnificent thing to behold. “You have been gone exactly twelve min—what the hell do you think you’re going to do with those?”
I twirled the red silk braided rope in one hand, while draping the matching scarf over my shoulder. “Sally gave them to me. I’m going to use them, my sexy vampire, to keep you from doing everything you want to do. You’re still healing, so it’s important you don’t put too much stress on your wounds. The rope will ensure you don’t.”
“You don’t seriously believe you can tie me down.”
“Oh, yes, yes I do.”
He rolled his eyes and tried to hide a smug thought that he would indulge me for a few minutes before simply ripping his hands free from the restraint. I smiled a secret smile to myself, and peeled off my jeans and shirt.
“You’re not happy anymore,” I said, gesturing toward his penis, now in a dormant state.
“You were gone for twelve minutes,” he said, giving me a tolerant look as I slipped one of his hands through the adjustable loop in one end of the rope, snaking it through a couple of bars on the metal headboard before repeating the process with his remaining hand.
He tried to catch the nipple of my breast nearest him in his mouth as I leaned over him, but I shifted to the side, saying, “I would have thought you might have entertained yourself with thoughts of how you wanted me to pleasure you.”
“I didn’t, although I did spend some time on various punishment methods that will be meted out to you if you don’t stop stalling and let me make love to you.”
I smiled as he tested the bonds, distracted for a moment with the way the muscles in his arms and chest moved as he did so. The silk rope gave a little, but not so much that he could reach past his ears.
“What a delicious picture this is,” I said, leaning forward to nip his lower lip. “A handsome-as-sin vampire all tied up, just like a smorgasbord for me to taste. But I think . . . yes, I think we can improve on this experience.”
“I hope so, because I’m fast losing pa
tience with you.”
He tried to sound stern and unhappy, but I could feel that his interest and curiosity had been piqued.
Has no woman ever taken the lead with you in lovemaking?
Not like this, no. What are you doing with that scarf?
“It’s a blindfold. Oooh, tricky!” As I leaned over him to tie the silken scarf over his eyes, he twisted and caught me with his legs, the powerful muscles in his thighs almost spelling an end to my plan. Just stroking my hand up their hard lengths was enough to have me giving in to all the wicked thoughts Alec was currently transmitting to me, especially when he added a sense of how much pleasure he received from me touching him. “But it will do you no good.”
I pried myself out of the leg vise, and quickly tied the scarf over his eyes, making sure his nose was free for breathing. “Would you like a safe word?”
“Hell, no.”
He was still smugly of the belief that he was in control of the situation. I let him continue thinking it as I cooed softly, stroking a hand down his chest from the jagged scar at his breastbone down to his penis. “Sooo hot, Alec. Your skin burns, but in a good way. I want to lick every inch of you. And since you are at my mercy and unable to distract me with your hands and mouth, I think I will.”
I hummed a jaunty little song to myself as I bent over his chest, swirling a tongue around first one nipple, hidden in the soft curls of hair, before turning my attention to the other, allowing my fingers to stroke the ridged muscles of his abdomen. I don’t think I’ve ever slept with a man who had an actual six-pack, Alec. Do you work out?
Sometimes, when I’m not doing anything else.
I mentally damned his genes for allowing him to be in such good shape without working at it, while lesser folks like me were at the mercy of sadistic personal trainers.
Do not pretend that your body does anything but please me, he chastised me. You know it does, and it would not matter what shape it was.
“OK, that right there would make just about every woman on the planet your love slave for life.” I moved my kisses down his chest to his belly, swirling my tongue around his belly button as his hips jerked upward, his breath hissing when I bit the lovely indentation below his hips. “Luckily, no one but me is going to know you’re so wonderful. Why, what do we have here? It looks like a penis.”
“You love toying with me this way, don’t you?” he asked in a voice tinged with amused exasperation. “You truly think you have me in your power?”
“I know I do.” I let my fingers go wild on his groin, stroking and gently pulling, and generally just getting to know the scenery. I bent down and gently bit his inner thigh, enjoying the sheer spurt of pleasure that coiled through him as a result. His hunger was riding him hotly now, but I knew part of it was triggered by sexual need, and I couldn’t help but want to push that just a bit higher before giving in to him. I looked up and gave him a saucy grin. “You don’t know where I’m going to touch next, do you? You’re wholly in my power, Alec. I can touch you here, or here, or even nibble you here . . .”
He groaned deep in his chest.
“. . . and there’s not a darned thing you can do about it. I have to say, I really enjoy having you spread out before me like this. Let’s see, are you ticklish here?”
“Dammit, woman, you are deliberately baiting me!”
“Mmm.” I looked up from where I was nipping gently at his inner thighs. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Yes, but that’s beside the point. Cease your teasing.”
“Or what?” I asked sweetly, gently squeezing his testicles. “Oh, didn’t I mention that Sally said those ropes are magic? You can’t break them, you can’t slip your hands out, and you can’t untie them from the bed. In other words, my sexy vampire, you are well and truly bound until such time as I want you free.”
“Is that so?” I couldn’t see them beneath the scarf, but I knew his eyes were filled with heat and passion and hunger, promising retribution for both my tone and actions. I allowed my grin to grow before dipping my head and taking him into my mouth.
He swore in Latin, his hips thrusting upward as I tasted, and swirled, and generally drove us both close to the breaking point.
“Yes,” I said somewhat breathlessly a short time later, admittedly smirking to myself.
He whipped the scarf off to give me a heated look that came close to making my blood boil . . . until I realized just what that meant.
“Hey—” I started to say, but suddenly, I was on my belly at the bottom of the bed, Alec hard and hot behind me, the scarf twisted around underneath me. Alec used it to pull my hips up, parting my legs with his knees as he bent over me. “Alec! How did you get out of the magic ropes?”
“They weren’t magic, mi corazón.”
“Damn that Sally! She lied to me!”
“I’m sure she would think of it simply as being naughty,” he said, kissing a path from my spine over to one hip before giving in to the hunger that threatened to swamp us both. Pain flared for a fraction of a second before melting into the most exquisite pleasure as he drank, my body aching with need for him.
“God shouldn’t . . . oh Mother Mary, that is so good.... God shouldn’t lie.”
Alec’s tongue swiped across the spot he’d been drinking from before he pulled my hips up with the scarf. “Now we shall see who is the one in power, and who is helpless.”
“What are you doing? ” I asked, every atom of my body quivering with anticipation and desire. “Are we doing it doggy-style?”
“You wanted bondage. Now you shall have it,” he said, pulling up on the scarf as he thrust inside my body.
I had been about to protest that I had never done bondage, even bondage light, as I suspected this would be classified, but the sensation of the scarf pulling up on my pubic bone as he entered me was enough to push everything from my mind but that of the rapture he was giving me just by flexing his hips.
What’s that, Corazon? Not going to protest that you are now my helpless captive?
I moaned in his mind as he slackened the scarf when he withdrew before pulling me upward again as he stroked back in.
Not going to deny that you can’t escape my touch?
The angle was different than if I’d just been on my hands and knees, allowing him to plunge into depths that had not been reached before, waves of pleasure rippling outward with increasing intensity.
Not even going to demand I stop dominating you?
Oh, god, no! For the love of all that’s holy, dominate me some more!
My approaching orgasm mingled with his sensations, tangling together until we were both poised on the brink.
Corazon?
Nnrng?
I love you, he said as he jerked upward on the scarf, sliding deeper and harder into me than he had before, his mouth hot on my shoulder as he bit.
It was too much for me, far too much. The orgasm, the sense of profound satisfaction he felt when drinking from me, and the knowledge that his love would burn eternally was all just too much. My body and soul seemed to explode simultaneously in rapture, a bright supernova of love and ecstasy that shone so brightly, I was surprised it didn’t consume us both.
When I stopped being a brilliant, glittering ball of orgasmic wonder, I found myself lying panting on Alec’s still-heaving chest, his arms holding tight to me.
I lifted my head. He opened one eye and rolled it down to meet my gaze. “Still think I haven’t healed?”
“Oh, you’ve healed,” I said, gasping for breath. “You’re definitely cleared for duty. Jesus wept, Alec! That was . . . hoo! I’m totally a go on bondage from here on out. Do you think Sally will notice if we run out with the rope and scarf? Because frankly, I would give her just about anything to keep them.”
He laughed and hugged me despite the fact that he was also struggling to catch his breath. Ah, my heart, what would I do without you?
“Luckily, my studmuffin extraordinaire—really, where did you learn to do that thing w
ith the scarf?—you won’t have to find out. Although I suppose we should get moving soon. Sally never did say where she sent the vampires, and Eleanor, not to mention Brother Ailwin, although I doubt if he cares about us anymore now that Bael is gone. But still, we should be moving on just in case people show up to nab you.”
Alec closed his eye again. “Women. I’ll never understand how they can talk after sex. I need sleep.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re immortal,” I said, pulling up the sheet and snuggling into him nonetheless.
“Immortal doesn’t mean we don’t need sleep. And stop worrying, Cora; I won’t allow anyone to interfere with us any longer.”
“Oh really? What do you plan on doing?” I looked up when he didn’t answer, but he was telling the truth—he really did need sleep. His face was relaxed as I felt him drift off on a cloud of sated male satisfaction. I spent a long, long time holding him, wondering how we were going to untangle all the threads that seemed to weave around us into a knot. Uppermost in my mind were the vampires and their council who were still obviously intent on punishing Alec, but also niggling at the back of my mind was a concern that we weren’t through seeing Eleanor. And then there was the lichmaster de Marco; he seemed to be overly interested in vampires. I made a mental note to ask Alec about it later. Last on my list was Brother Ailwin—would he decide to get revenge against us, or would he give up now that I couldn’t be used?
I fell asleep worrying about it all, secure, at least, in the knowledge that Alec returned my love. If nothing else, that made the world seem infinitely more wonderful.
It was night again when I woke up to find the bed empty, and Alec gone.
“What do you mean, he left?” I asked ten minutes later, catching myself wanting to yell at Sally. She might not be God, but she was awfully close to that. More importantly, I had a feeling if I gave in to my frustration and vented my spleen upon her, she’d just get “naughty” again with me. “Left for where?”
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