by Folsom, Tina
***
Bianca let the words roll over her tongue and realized the moment they hit the air that she spoke the truth. She trusted Lorenzo, the man she knew to be a vampire, the man who could kill her so easily if he wanted to.
Yet instead of fear, another emotion coursed through her like blood rushing through her veins: excitement. Lorenzo wanted her, not simply to rut on her, but to keep him company. And he’d confessed that he couldn’t get enough of her. The way with which he looked at her now, desire and affection equal occupants in his gleaming eyes, she truly couldn’t imagine that he’d ever hurt her. Even when she recalled the way he’d looked when he’d quarreled with his friend, when his fangs had shown and his eyes had burned like molten lava, no fear emerged in her heart.
On the contrary, knowing what power he kept leashed inside him, made her desire for him even more intense.
Bianca brushed her lips against his. “You won’t hurt me.”
“And you won’t hurt me,” he whispered back before he took her lips and kissed her more tenderly than he ever had before.
And if a vampire could be tender, then she had nothing to fear from him, she knew it in her heart. Her only fear now was that he tired of her, because what she wanted most was to stay with him, not to continue her search for the treasure, but to be with Lorenzo.
When he carried her to bed that night and cradled her in his arms, Bianca didn’t sleep for a long time. Instead, she watched him sleep, watched how his chest fell and rose with each breath. He was a living, breathing man, full of passion and tenderness. And he had power over her, just like she had power over him.
His friend’s words echoed in her ears. “Do you trust her enough not to kill you in your sleep?”
Bianca looked at Lorenzo’s sleeping nude form and stroked her hand over the place where his heart was. It beat against her palm, strong and steady.
“My love,” he mumbled in his sleep.
No, she couldn’t hurt him, even if he turned out to be a terrible monster. So she hoped with all her heart that whatever it meant to be a Vampire was nothing more than an affliction that required him to drink blood, but that apart from that gruesome act, he was as humane as she thought herself to be.
“Sleep, my love, you’re safe,” she whispered and snuggled into the curve of his body.
Chapter Seventeen
Ever since the night he’d quarreled with Raphael, Lorenzo thought that Bianca looked at him differently. Whenever she thought he wasn’t watching, he caught her perusing him in a most peculiar fashion as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes. It would have been unnerving, had she not at the same time become even more wanton in bed, inciting him to drive them both to the point where control shattered and ecstasy ruled supreme.
“Tie me up!” Bianca urged him now as she lay writhing underneath him, already bathed in sweat from their lovemaking but eager for more.
He pulled his rock-hard erection out of her, more than willing to comply with her request. As he reached for the ties which had taken up permanent residence on his nightstand and proceeded to tie her wrists above her head, Bianca impatiently rocked her pelvis against him.
“Yes, show me how powerful you are. Make me submit to you.” Her words were interspersed by heavy breathing, her voice sounding almost delirious. And her eyes watched him with untamed lust, her tongue licking her lips the way she always did when she wanted to suck him. God, he was one lucky son of a bitch having Bianca in his bed.
Once he’d secured the restraints around the headboard, he lowered himself over her again, playfully sliding his cock over her pearl. She hissed out a breath and arched against him, but he withdrew too quickly for her.
“Oh, no, my sweet, I’m your master now. I’ll control your pleasure.”
She lowered her gaze to his cock. “Let me suck you. I know how much you like that.”
Despite the fact that she was right about how much he enjoyed his cock in her mouth, he shook his head. “It’s your pleasure I want.”
Then he reached for the black scarf. “Now be a good mistress and close your eyes.”
There was a glint of surprise in her look before she lowered her lids and let herself be blindfolded. He’d never deprived her of her eyesight before, but he’d never seen her acting with such abandon as tonight. If she ever agreed to this, it would be tonight.
“What are you going to do?” she asked. He heard no fear in her voice, only excitement.
“Do you remember when I told you that on occasion I would want somebody else to watch us?”
Her breath hitched as her muscles tensed. “Who is it?”
Lorenzo smiled. “You haven’t met him. And it doesn’t matter who he is. All that matters is that you know that a stranger is looking at you while I’m pleasuring you.”
He rose and swung his legs to the side of the bed. “He’s waiting downstairs. I will go and fetch him now.” Then he stood and walked to the door and opened it, glancing back over his shoulder. He noticed how Bianca’s chest rose, her breathing more uneven than before. “Don’t be concerned, my love. He may only watch, not touch.”
Then he walked into the corridor and closed the door behind him.
***
Bianca felt her heartbeat escalate. The thought of another man watching them both scared and excited her. But it was too late to do anything about it. She was tied up, willingly at that, and unable to move. Maybe it was best this way: she could live out her wildest fantasies, things she would have never dared before.
When she heard steps on the stairs, she braced herself. Moments later, the door opened and closed.
“I’m back, Bianca. My friend here will stand to the right side of the bed so he’ll have a good view of what I’m doing. I’ve asked him not to speak so that you won’t be able to recognize his voice when you meet him in polite society in the future.”
The notion that one day she might face this man suddenly made her panic. “Lorenzo, maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
“Nonsense. Just forget he’s even here.”
When Lorenzo’s hand stroked over her thigh, Bianca jolted.
“Easy, my love, easy. I thought you wanted to do something new. And look—” He paused, trailing his fingers to the apex of her thighs, dipping one digit into her wet cave. “—how wet you are at the thought of this.” Then he inhaled audibly. “I need to taste you.”
Lorenzo pushed her thighs further apart, then settled between them. His hot breath blew against her moist flesh a moment before his tongue swept against it, lapping up the juices that oozed from her throbbing cunny. His moans reverberated in her body, driving any sane thought out of her passion-clouded mind.
“Oh, God,” she let out. “More.”
Lorenzo lifted his head from her flesh, cold air wafting against it in the process. But it didn’t douse the fire that was already burning inside her. “Can you smell that, my friend? Yes? She tastes even better. Shame really, that you can’t have any of it. Isn’t that right, Bianca? Or do you want him to lick you too?”
Shocked, Bianca pulled on her restraints. “NO!”
She heard the grin in Lorenzo’s voice when he answered. “Good answer, because had you said that you wanted him too, I would have had to kill him, friendship or not.” Then he drove one thick finger into her, making her muscles clench around him. “Because you’re mine alone. Not to be shared. Not to be touched by anybody else.”
“Yes,” was all she could whimper as he continued to finger-fuck her, adding a second digit to the first. But the contact left her wanting, not giving her enough friction, not filling her the way she needed to be filled. “I need more.”
“I know that, my love. You’ll have to learn to ask for what you want. So, ask for it.”
She swallowed, apprehensive about another person besides Lorenzo hearing her voice dirty words. “I want you inside me.”
“I am inside you,” Lorenzo emphasized and drove his fingers in knuckles deep.
“Your cock!”
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“Ah, you want my cock.”
“Yes, fill me with your cock!”
“How do you want it? Slow and gentle?”
Bianca writhed against him, her pearl in desperate need. “Hard, fast.” When he withdrew his fingers, she sighed in anticipation. His body settled over her. “Touch me first,” she begged, unable to still the burning need at her core.
A moment later, his hard cock slid over her pearl. Relief flooded her. “Yes!”
But a second later, his erection nudged at her cunny and sliced into her with a move so powerful, it shifted her entire body closer to the headboard.
“Is that how you like it?” he grunted.
“Yes!”
Lorenzo withdrew, then slammed back into her. She braced her bound hands against the headboard feeling the carved letters underneath her fingertips as she prepared for the next impact. Instead, she felt his hand rip the blindfold from her eyes.
“I want you to look at me when you come.” His voice was raw.
Her eyes darted to the right of the bed, searching for the stranger who was watching them. She saw—nobody. When she spun her head back, her gaze collided with Lorenzo’s.
“You didn’t think I would allow any man to see you this way, did you? You’re mine. Nobody else has the right to see you like this.”
His words broke the wall around her heart down as if it was merely a paper screen. She locked eyes with him. They had a glint in them now, a red-orange glow. Previously, she would have dismissed it as a reflection of the candlelight, but now that she knew what he was, a vampire, she understood that he was tethering at the edge of his control. And at that very moment she realized what she wanted.
Her lips parted, and the words she thought she’d never utter, spilled over her lips. “Then bite me and make me yours.”
***
Lorenzo’s heart stopped as his body jolted backwards of its own volition, virtually catapulting him off the bed so fast he realized his vampire side had taken control. Bianca’s words echoed over and over in his head: bite me. She knew! Bianca knew!
His heart started beating again, faster now. He gulped down air, expanding his chest, his body ready to fight.
“Lorenzo, please, come back.”
Bianca’s plea made him snap his gaze back to her. Still tied up and utterly vulnerable in her nudity, her eyes hadn’t lost the desire he’d seen shining in them earlier.
“I … you … you’re mistaken.” His brain couldn’t produce a coherent thought. It felt like somebody had taken his brain cells, disassembled them and thrown them into a barrel that now rolled down a mountain top.
“I know what you are.”
He shook his head. Denial was the only solution. “You know nothing.”
“You’re a vampire. I saw how you changed.”
“No!” He took a step back.
“That night you quarreled with your friend … I saw your fangs, I saw your eyes. I know what you are. I heard you say it.”
Lorenzo ran his hand through his hair and took a tentative step toward the bed. “You eavesdropped?”
Bianca nodded. “I’m glad I did.”
“You didn’t run. Why?”
“I wanted to. But then you came out of the parlor.”
Slowly, he approached the bed, watching for signs of fear from Bianca, but there were none. “You could have escaped later.”
“No. I can’t escape you. Not then. Not now. You’ve captured me and my heart. You looked so distraught that night, so sad. I didn’t have the heart to leave you. And when you told me you needed me, I …” Her voice trailed off, but her eyes continued her sentence.
Could it be real? Did she truly love him? How could he know for certain? He had to offer her a choice. “You’re free to go, Bianca.”
Lorenzo stopped next to the bed and reached for her wrists, untying them swiftly. Then he stepped back. “Leave now. I won’t hurt you. All I ask is that you keep my secret.”
Bianca sat up, shaking her head in the process. “No. I can’t do that.”
He closed his eyes for a moment. Why did she have to force him to do this? He didn’t want to wipe her memory of all that had happened, but now he knew that he had to. Anguish swept over him at the thought that the same fate as Elle’s would befall Bianca. “I beg you.”
Bianca slid off the bed, her bare feet making barely any sound on the wooden floor. With two steps, she crossed the distance between them and laid her hand on his chest. “I won’t leave you. I want you, now more than ever.”
He put his hand over hers. “It’s madness, you should run while you still can.”
“My heart’s already made its choice. I want you. But if you have tired of me already—”
He placed his finger on her lips. “I’ll never tire of you.”
She gifted him with a ravishing smile. “Then bite me. I know you want it. I can feel it every time your teeth graze my skin.”
His cock stiffened at the thought of sinking his fangs into her. He pulled her into his embrace. “My love, you can’t even begin to understand what this means to me.” To be allowed to feed off the very woman who had captured his heart, was more than anything he’d ever hoped for. “I’ve been craving your blood ever since you stepped into my home. And I’ve fought it every day.”
“No longer,” she whispered and tilted her head to expose her graceful neck.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Lorenzo lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, laying her onto it before moving over her and positioning himself between her thighs.
“I want to make love to you at the same time.” He stroked his hand over her face, smoothing back a stand of hair. Then he moved his hips and slid into her, exhaling sharply as his cock sank deep into her hot channel.
Bianca panted, her eyes closing at impact.
“Look at me.”
When her eyes flew open, Lorenzo willed his fangs to extend. He felt them push past his lips and noticed how Bianca gazed at him in fascination. There was no fear.
“I love you,” he whispered and bent his head, connecting with the soft skin on her neck. He licked over it and felt her shiver.
“Do it, my love.”
Lorenzo opened his mouth wider and pressed his fangs into her skin, piercing it, before he drove deeper. As he drew the first drops of her blood, his head swam. Her essence was pure and sinful at the same time, more intoxicating than he could have ever imagined. Without haste, he sucked on her vein, taking the life-giving essence into his body where it rejuvenated his cells and recharged his power.
At the same time, his hips moved, and he slowly withdrew his cock from her sheath only to thrust it back into her. Her muscles gripped him tightly, shuddering as he plunged deep. But he needed more, an even closer connection to the treasure he held in his arms. And for the first time in his life, he opened his heart and laid its contents bare, sending his emotions out to her.
He knew when she pressed her hand against the back of his head to hold him tighter to her neck that she felt the connection between them.
“Oh, God, Lorenzo!” she moaned on a shallow breath.
Lorenzo released her neck and licked over the puncture wounds, closing them instantly and turned his face to her. Her lips glistened and beckoned him to approach. As he brushed his bloodstained lips against hers and licked against them, she parted them. He swept his tongue inside and kissed her, claiming her as his while he continued to send his feelings to her, his mind and heart pouring out of him so she would understand the depth of his need for her.
Her hands came around him, gripping him tighter, urging him on to take her harder. He complied and drove deeper into her until her interior muscles spasmed around him, sending him over the crest and into paradise.
Chapter Eighteen
Bianca felt Lorenzo’s lips on hers and slowly opened her eyes.
“It’s called the little death,” he explained with a smile as he caressed her cheek with the back of his index f
inger.
“I fainted.” She’d never passed out in bed with a man.
“It happens sometimes when the pleasure is too much to bear.” He planted a soft kiss on her lips.
If she’d had any decency left, she would have blushed at his words, but as it was, all she could think of was what it had felt like when he’d bitten her. Her entire body had been afire. But not only that: she’d sensed him, his emotions, the love he had for her, almost as if she’d been inside his mind.
“I felt something strange when we made love,” she started.
Lorenzo took her hand and lead it to his lips to kiss it. “I know. I opened my heart to you so you could feel what’s inside me.”
So she hadn’t dreamed it. “How?”
“My vampire powers allow me to reach out to you and send you my thoughts and my feelings without speaking.”
“Does that mean you can read my mind too?”
He shook his head. “I only know what you show me or tell me, but I can’t see into your heart. But what you’ve shown me tonight, what you’ve given me by offering me your blood, has told me everything I need to know.”
His eyes shone with the evidence of his affection for her. It made her chest feel heavy with the secrets she still kept from him. But she couldn’t share them now.
“And your blood.” He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. “My sweet Bianca, I’ve never tasted anything as pure as you.”
Pure? She wasn’t pure. Panic gripped her for a moment. What if he ever found out about her past? About her life as a courtesan? Would he still consider her pure then? Her pulse raced at the thought that if he ever discovered her secret, he might change his mind about her. And then? Would he toss her aside, bitter about her deception?
If she confessed everything now, would he forgive her? She had to try. “Lorenzo, there’s something I need to say …” She paused, not knowing how to go on.
“Bianca, before you say anything else, I need to explain one thing to you. It’s about what you overheard that night. About Elle.”