He couldn’t offer her any such thing, and so it was better for her to move on and forget all about him. But damned if that thought didn’t bother him even more than the fact that they were connected right now.
Because part of him didn’t want her to forget.
He wanted to live on in her thoughts long after she left Tombstone.
He wouldn’t. He would erase her memory and send her on her way. Damn straight, he would.
That’s what he told himself when he finally hauled his ass out of bed at sunset, feeling even more tired and worked up than when he’d crawled in early that morning.
His night went from bad to worse when he walked into the jail and found Clay and Rhett waiting for him.
The grave look on the deputy’s face clued him in that something bad had, indeed, happened.
“Doc just called. It’s Kit. He went to check on her a few minutes ago and she’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“I mean someone just picked her up and carried her off.”
“How is that possible? Doc was supposed to be with her.”
“He was. He just left her for a few minutes because Dolly over at the motel called about an employee getting burned in a grease fire. It was still a half hour until sunset, so he thought he had enough time to run over there. The burns turned out to be worse than he anticipated, and he lost track of time patching the guy up. By the time he got back to the infirmary, Kit was gone.”
Dead.
That’s what his gut told him, but after a quick check of the crime scene, he knew that she’d been alive and breathing when she’d been abducted.
But for how long?
“Round up the others and ride out after her,” he told Clay.
“What about you?”
If Ike had managed to grab Kit, Boone had no doubt that he would go after Riley, too. And while he’d always thought of the cave as his safe place, suddenly he wasn’t so sure.
Ike was smart. He’d obviously waited and watched before making a move on Kit. He could very well have tracked Boone to the cave at some point over the past few days.
If that was the case, Boone was pretty sure he would have felt him. But still, he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Go after Kit. I’ll catch up with you as soon as I check on Riley.”
Clay nodded, and Boone turned on his heel and headed outside. Swinging a leg up over the horse, he hit the saddle and kicked the animal into motion.
Chapter Fifteen
SOMETHING WAS wrong.
Riley knew it even before Boone came barreling into the cave as if the devil himself were hot on his heels.
She felt it in the anxiety zipping up and down her spine, the worry twisting at her gut, the fear.
Feelings that didn’t ease until he walked in and saw her sitting by the fire. He still wore the same black pants and black boots that were his trademark look, but he’d shed his duster in favor of a simple black T-shirt that hugged his broad shoulders and heavily muscled arms. The sharp edges of his slave band tattoos peeked from beneath the edges of the sleeves that hugged his biceps. Tension pulled his mouth into a tight line, and worry carved his features.
She pushed to her feet. “What’s wrong?”
“Kit’s missing.” He did a quick visual check of the inside of the cave before glancing behind him at the opening. Then he pulled a gun from the holster at his hip and handed it to her.
“Here. It won’t do much good if he comes after you, but it’ll slow him down if you get a close enough shot. Long enough for me to know what’s happening and get to you.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have to find Kit.” His gaze locked with hers. “I have to find him.”
She stared at the gun in her hands and then back up at him, and raw terror unlike anything she’d ever felt before welled inside of her.
Not fear of him, but fear for him.
Because, at that moment, she couldn’t shake the undeniable truth that if he walked away right now and went after that vampire, she would never see him again.
Never touch him.
Kiss him.
Never.
And suddenly that was far from okay.
“Don’t go.” The words were out before she could stop herself. She fought down a wave of insecurity and reached for the buttons on her blouse. The edges parted and she freed her aching breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and the first whisper of air against her nipples brought them to throbbing awareness.
“Don’t.” His voice was tight. His gaze flashed a fiery blue and she knew he felt the desire every bit as much as she did. The urgency. The desperation.
Feelings magnified a thousandfold because of what lived and breathed inside of him.
His eyes glittered with a wildness that sent a jolt of apprehension through her. But more intense was the lust boiling inside her. The like.
The love.
Yeah, right.
She didn’t love him. She couldn’t love him.
Not for forever.
But tonight . . .
That was a different story altogether.
The material slid off her shoulders and fell to the floor.
“I need this.” She kicked off her boots and shed her socks. “You need this.” Hooking her fingers in the waistband of her jeans, she wiggled the denim down her hips and legs until the material pooled around her ankles and she stepped free. With a quick glide of her fingertips, she shed her thong. “I know it’s not the ideal time but you need your strength before you run off after this guy.” And she needed him.
One more time.
One last time.
SHE WAS RIGHT.
In the blink of an eye, he pinned her to the nearest wall.
“What—” She gasped, but her startled expression quickly faded into one of pure excitement as she stared up into his eyes.
She wanted the vampire, all right. She wanted to walk on the wild side, to unleash the beast inside of him. For all her boldness, she’d yet to see what he really and truly was. A glimpse would surely scare some sense into her and make her realize that he was far worse than any man in her past. With him, she wouldn’t just be flirting with the dark side, she would be jumping over the edge, straight into something far more dangerous than she could possibly imagine.
“I wonder which spot I should taste first,” he growled, pulling back his lips. A hiss worked its way up his throat as he bared his fangs. His body trembled, and he touched his mouth to her ripe throat.
She didn’t stiffen when he rasped her soft flesh with the sharp edge of his incisors.
Rather, she arched her neck, the movement pushing her soft flesh against his fangs and pricking her skin. Her gasp sizzled in the air as a sweet drop of blood bubbled and slid down her skin.
He didn’t mean to taste her, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d wanted her for too long and the beast was too hungry.
Boone caught it with his tongue, licking to the source and drawing another few sweet drops before lifting her. Her feet left the ground as he pushed her higher up the smooth granite until her nipple brushed his lips.
Her breath caught as he latched onto the ripe tip and drew it deep. His fangs grazed the tender flesh around her areola and his groin tightened. Her nipple throbbed against his tongue as he sank into her just a hair and drew a few more drops of her delicious heat. The salty sweetness sent a dizzying rush to his head. His insides clenched. His balls ached. His cock throbbed.
More, more, more.
The chant echoed in his head and he pushed her higher, pinning her in place with his mind rather than his hands because he needed them now. He slid his palms around to cup her ass as he tilted her forward just a fraction and touched his lips to the sl
ick flesh between her legs. He licked her, tracing the seam with the very tip of his tongue before parting her.
She closed her eyes, her hands braced on his shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh. Holding on. Urging him on.
Her last thought pushed past the thunder of his own heart, making him all the more determined to give her what she thought she wanted and frighten her off for good. He drew her clit into his mouth and she jumped. He drew on her, rasping the hot little nub, suckling it for a wild moment before replacing his lips with his fingers. He shifted his mouth an inch to the side, to the tender flesh of her upper thigh. The sweet scent of her ripe sex filled his nostrils and fanned his hunger into a raging inferno that burned through him like a match to dry tinder. A growl rumbled from his lips. His gums tingled and his throat constricted. He opened his mouth wide and sank his fangs deep.
Convulsions gripped her and she clutched at him.
A shudder lashed through him as he drew hard on her. Her delicious essence filled his mouth and the energy from her climax seeped into him at every point where flesh met flesh.
It was the ultimate in fulfillment for a vampire, and it wasn’t nearly enough.
Not the warm, succulent body grasping at him, or the sweet essence pulsing into his mouth.
Boone wanted more than just Riley’s body and her blood.
He wanted all of her. Now. Always.
The realization sent a rush of determination through him and he stiffened. And where he hadn’t been able to control the beast that night so long ago, he managed to fight it back down now.
Because he wasn’t merely hungry.
The truth hit him as he held himself in tight check, reining in the monster that lived and breathed inside of him. Controlling him with a will he’d never knew he possessed.
This wasn’t just sustenance.
This was Riley.
The woman he liked.
The woman he loved.
The notion struck and he managed to draw back. Blood trickled from the spot and he lapped at it, licking at her wounds until they stopped bleeding.
Love? Talk about a load of bullshit. Forget the stuff that moved mountains or made men trudge a hundred miles through the freezing snow. Love was just a word. A myth. An excuse.
His father had professed to love his mother, yet he’d never lifted a finger to help her on her deathbed. Likewise, he’d claimed to love his only son, but he hadn’t done a damned thing to stop those men from stringing Boone up that night.
No, love was just an idea.
One with zero substance.
But while Boone doubted its very existence, he knew that he felt something for Riley. Something real and more powerful than anything he’d felt for any woman in his past.
She was different.
Special.
His.
And so he forgot all about scaring her away, and decided to do everything in his power to show her she had nothing to fear from him.
Not now.
Not ever again.
Chapter Sixteen
RILEY WAS STILL vibrating from the most mind-blowing orgasm of her life when she felt the soft bedroll at her back. Her eyelids fluttered open and she stared up to see Boone follow her down.
Straddling her, his knees on either side of her thighs, he leaned back and gazed down at her. The single lantern that burned in the cave was at his back, making him more shadow than man as he loomed over her.
Except for his eyes.
She saw them clearly, glowing blue fire that skimmed over her, setting her nerves ablaze and making her forget all about the exquisite pleasure they’d just shared. Hunger growled and anxiety skimmed up and down her spine, but she refused to put on the brakes.
She wanted this.
She wanted him.
Wild and out of control like before. Or slow and easy.
Like now.
He towered over and drank her in with his eyes. As if he couldn’t quite get his fill. As if he wanted everything she had to give and then some.
The notion should have scared the ever-lovin’ crap out of her. It would have if she’d been with any other man. But Boone wasn’t trying to run her life or suppress her free will.
He simply wanted to give her pleasure. To give her the ecstasy that she’d given him. To show her how it was meant to be between a man and a woman. She saw as much blazing in the high heat of his eyes. And she felt it deep inside, in the whisper of his voice through her head and the echo of desire that pulsed along her nerve endings.
Instead of squirming out of his grasp and fighting him for control, she gave in to the excitement that fluttered through her and simply stayed there beneath him and let him take the lead.
His hands clenched at his sides for several long seconds, a muscle ticked in his jaw. His shoulders stood stiff and tense, as if he fought to balance the precious control she’d just handed to him. After several heartbeats, he seemed to find his equilibrium. Where his hands had been fast and furious before, they were now slow and purposeful and oh, so delicious as they reached out.
“I’ve been thinking about you every night,” he murmured, his voice thick and raw. “Beneath me, open for me, wet for me . . .” He skimmed her body, his fingertips brushing her neck, her collarbone, the slope of her breasts, the indentation of her ribs. “Checking on you every night and not touching you has been killing me.”
The truth blazed in the brightness of his eyes as they deepened and shifted until they burned a rich, vibrant purple.
He caught her hands with one of his own and forced them high above her head. His other hand went to her abdomen. He traced lazy circles, touching her skin as if he’d never felt anything quite as soft.
Then he lowered his head and drew her nipple fully into the moist heat of his mouth.
Riley clenched her fingers, pushing against the hand that constrained her. She wanted to touch him. To feel him. To push things back up to the frenzied pace of a moment before so she didn’t have to think about what he was doing to her. And how she was going to feel when he wasn’t doing it to her. How she would miss it.
How she would miss him.
Emotion warred with the delicious heat that simmered through her as he licked a path across her skin to coax the other breast in the same torturous manner.
She rotated her hips, rubbing against his chest. She wanted him, surrounding her, consuming her, filling up the emptiness inside her once and for all.
Forever.
The thought struck again and she fought hard, her legs parting and her body bucking, but she was little match for his strength.
He suckled her again, long and deep, and a moan vibrated up her throat. One rough fingertip traced the soft folds between her legs, pushing inside just a delicious fraction that made her quiver and gasp. He lingered, suckling her breasts, first one then the other. Back and forth. Driving her mad.
She clenched and unclenched around the tip of his finger, trying to draw him deeper, but he didn’t budge. Not until she was panting and whimpering and so desperate that she thought she would surely die if he didn’t do something. Right. Now.
Boone smiled, his teeth a sudden break in the black shadow of his face. Then the expression faded as he gazed down at her. His attention shifted, traveling from her face, down the column of her neck to her breasts, to the spread of her thighs and his finger, which poised at her pulsing cleft.
He pushed all the way in and she moaned, coming up off the bedroll as pure pleasure pierced her brain. The feeling, so consuming and exquisite, sucked the air from her lungs and she stopped breathing for a long moment. He didn’t move, just held himself deep inside as her body settled around him and clamped tighter.
“You’re so wet, so warm.”
The words sounded so clear and distin
ct in her head, as if he’d spoken them directly into her ear. But he hadn’t. He didn’t have to. He’d invaded her mind as well as her body, thanks to his vampire skills.
The notion should have scared her. She’d fought too hard to strengthen her resolve, to erect a wall around herself so that she would never be a victim again.
She couldn’t lose herself in someone else. She wouldn’t.
But this wasn’t about losing. It was about winning. Feeling. Enjoying.
She lifted her pelvis, a slave to the pleasure that gripped her as she worked her body around his decadent finger. She leaned into him only to pull away. She swayed from side to side, her movements frantic, desperate, as she pushed herself higher and higher, eager to feel rather than think about what her reaction meant.
“I’ve never met a woman like you.” The words pierced the humming in her ears and she went still. Her eyes opened to find him staring down at her. “You’re one of a kind, Riley. And you’re all mine.”
Before the words could register, his mouth swooped down and captured hers in a deep kiss that went way beyond the sweet press of his lips.
He coaxed her open and slid his tongue inside and drew on her sweetly, tenderly, for several long moments. Until her frantic heartbeat eased and she forgot all about sucking him deeper into her greedy body. Instead, she wanted to wrap her arms around him, pull him even closer and feel his heartbeat against her own.
A second later, she found herself free to do just that.
Her hands slid over his shoulders and held tight. She relished the feel of his body as it pressed against hers, his heartbeat so steady and sure against her breasts. She’d never felt closer to a man at that moment.
But he wasn’t a man.
He was a vampire.
She tried to remember that all-important fact. It explained why he couldn’t keep his hands off of her and why being here with him made for the hottest, most passionate sex of her entire life.
The Quick and the Undead: Volume 1 (Tombstone, Texas) Page 16