It stood to reason they might have been followed from Baltimore. The same vampire who had accosted Zoe in the alley behind her apartment could easily be lying in wait here, now. Maybe he already had her, held in a caricature of an intimate embrace, draining away her life essence.
He’d bite her himself when she showed up. If she returned safely, he’d sink his teeth into her throat and drain her himself just to teach her a lesson. If only he could.
“Hey? What are you looking for? The Flying Dutchman?”
Julian whirled around and captured the intruder in a vise-grip. In an instant, he had her neck exposed to his once-deadly bite. She struggled against him, her body trembling but her voice strong. “Hey, leggo!”
Disgusted with his inability to feed from her, he dropped her unceremoniously on the sandy patio.
“Ow! Nice welcome home.”
“Where have you been? It’s been dark for almost an hour.”
“I was walking.” She matched his scowl, and they glared at each other for a tense moment. Her clean, breezy scent lingered around him, and his nerve endings pulsed in all the places her body had touched his.
She drew herself up from the ground and, impulsively, he grabbed her and hugged her. Then he pushed her away.
She stared, dumbfounded. “Did I miss something?”
“Where did you come from? I’ve been searching the beach for you.”
“I walked up a few blocks over on Marlin Place and cut across the boardwalk. I picked up some hot dogs and fries. They’re in the kitchen, if you’re hungry.”
She blinked, obviously not sure what to make of him at the moment. He wasn’t sure what to make of himself.
“You came in from the street?”
“Yeah. Furry handcuffs works for me too.”
“Someone could have followed you.”
“I was careful.”
She didn’t know the meaning of the word. “Don’t disappear like that again.”
Her curiosity seemed to wear off in response to his warning tone. Her golden eyebrows shot up under her bangs, and she planted her hands on her hips. “Excuse me?”
“I said, don’t disappear again. I refuse to sit here and worry about—”
“You were worried about me?” The sudden lilt of amusement in her voice annoyed the daylights out of him.
“Not about you. About me.”
She shifted her weight from one sneakered foot to the other and pursed her lips. “Don’t give me that ‘every vampire for himself’ crap. I’m beginning to see that under that rugged exterior beats a heart of compassion. You were worried that something had happened to me because you’re starting to like having me around.”
“Considering you’re the only person I know at the moment who has neither the motive nor the power to kill me, I suppose you have some value. But that’s the only reason.”
She smirked, and the urge to bite her reared again. “You did save my life back at your townhouse. If it hadn’t been for you pushing me out the door—”
He cut her off with a wave. “But I was inside as well. You realize you were merely an obstacle to my escape.” That had been the only reason he’d shoved her out the door and thrown her down on the patio…and covered her body with his until the last of the burning debris settled around them.
“Yeah. Right. You could have left me at any time since then and never come back. You could have come here to Hester’s all by yourself and not worried what happened to me. I’m sure you could have made a bus ride from Baltimore incognito.”
She wasn’t going to give up. “And in your mind, this translates to undying devotion of some kind?”
She turned her back and sauntered toward the open kitchen door, her hips rolling in a seductive sway. “I’m just saying, don’t waste your breath denying that you’re capable of caring about someone other than yourself. Let yourself be human, Julian. It’s really not all that bad.”
He was behind her in an instant, one hand sweeping the hair from the back of her neck, the other trapping her waist against his as he had when she’d first surprised him on the patio.
“You’re lucky I’m human,” he said, the words whispery and ragged. “I’d like nothing better than to sink my teeth into you right now.”
Zoe tried to tell herself that if he’d been a vampire, she would be frightened, terrified in fact. But that would have been a lie. If he’d bitten her right now, she’d have welcomed it. As it was, the raw power of him, the tight coil of his muscles pressed against her made her own smaller body feel loose and liquid. She was almost weak with want.
Rather than struggle to escape his possessive grasp, she sank against him. Somehow, away from familiar surroundings, untethered from her friends and family, Zoe Boyd was beginning to lose her inhibitions in a big way. Something wanton in her rose up and dared him. “So bite me already.”
His arm tightened around her, and his lips found the hammering pulse point beneath her jaw. A silvery tingle raced through every nerve in her body, and she shuddered with need. Logical thought fled, leaving her completely ungoverned by reason or common sense. She pressed her hips back, taunting him.
“You tempt me…” His voice was low, as if he were talking to himself. “I don’t like it.”
“Why not? I’m not your type?” She shivered when his hot lips grazed her skin. It was all she could do not to moan for him.
“No. Not even close.”
“But Hester is.”
In response, he spun her in his arms and captured her lips with his. There wasn’t time to think, not that she’d been doing much of that anyway. There was only time to feel, and what Zoe felt would fuel her fantasies for the rest of her life.
When his lips parted hers and his tongue slipped inside, she could do nothing but surrender to it. He tasted warm and sweet with a dash of salty sea air. While he suckled her tongue and drew her into him, his hands explored her body. Like an artist molding soft clay, he smoothed her against him and made her fit his own hard angles. She melted in his embrace, and she let him kiss all the saucy defiance right out of her.
When he finally let her go, to her dismay, she actually staggered back a step.
“For the last hundred years, my type has been any woman willing to give herself to a vampire. And I don’t think you would ever do that, little gypsy.”
Wanna bet? Zoe raised a shaky hand to her lips. She tasted him, and she swore she could still feel his hand splayed across her back and his arousal pressing into her thigh.
She should have had a quick response, a torrent of indignant complaints about the extent of the “liberties” he’d taken with her in the past few days, but all she could do was stare at him and wish he would haul her into his arms again and give her no choice but to surrender.
When he broke eye contact, she sagged as though the strings holding her trembling body upright had been cut. She breathed in deep, still tasting him on her lips and at the back of her throat. The sensitive nerves in her belly clenched with the memory of his hands on her.
“I should apologize,” he said, running shaking fingers through his hair. “You’ve just met Julian Devlin, the vampire.”
“Ah…” There was a whole sentence perched on the tip of her tongue, but it never came out. The pithy reply she should have given him merely dissolved and faded away.
“I seem to be in possession of a conscience all of a sudden.”
“Mmm. Well.” Words. Words. Where could she get some coherent words on such short notice?
“Are you all right?”
She’d swallowed her tongue, or maybe he had. Oh…her muscles tightened up again and heat crept above the neckline of her sweater. “Fine. I’m going to go upstairs. Have a hot dog.”
She spun around, nearly colliding with one of Hester’s kitchen chairs, and hurried away. By the time she’d climbed the stairs and ducked into her room, she realized that running and hiding definitely had become her specialty.
This would never do. Julian paced the kitch
en, alternately tempted by the enticing scent of the food Zoe had brought home and by his nearly overwhelming desire to burst into her room and set upon her.
In his arms, she’d been magic, liquid and smooth. Pliant. Her kiss had ignited something in him he hadn’t thought he still possessed.
Certainly lust played a role. After all, he hadn’t had a woman in weeks, at least for anything more than a meal. His body had been quick to remind him that the needs of a living, breathing man could be just as urgent as those of a hungry vampire. But there’d been something more.
Relief at seeing her back safely had set his heart beating unnaturally fast. An invisible fist seemed to squeeze his gut at the thought of her being taken from him, a victim to his enemies who would laugh at his sudden dependence on a weak little human.
He longed to be a vampire again and shed these emotional ties that were beginning to bind him to Zoe. When he transformed back, his concern for her, this inexplicable aching need, would be blissfully wiped away.
And very likely replaced with an equally strong desire to kill her.
She needed to fully understand that he could not be trusted to leave her alone once he’d been restored. And he needed to touch her again.
With the taste of defeat mingling with her essence on his lips, Julian climbed the stairs to Hester’s invisible second floor, seeking his own damnation.
Chapter Twelve
He didn’t knock. Not that she expected him to.
When the bedroom door swung open, Zoe held her ground. She’d been standing there watching it, waiting for this moment, knowing full well that she’d pushed him to the breaking point downstairs.
She’d never wanted anything more in her life, and the look in his dark eyes when he crossed the threshold told her she was about to get it.
Two strides brought him next to her. He seemed to tower over her. Had he gotten taller on the trip upstairs? He leaned over her, meaning to intimidate, but all she wanted was to give him everything he demanded.
She met his gaze and braced for his touch.
Julian’s fingers traced the curve of her jaw, gentle and reverent as though he were worshipping her. She sighed into his touch, eager for more, but reluctant to rush anything.
“Come here.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her toward him, hip to hip. Before the sensation of having his long body pressed against her fully sank in, he buried his face in her neck. Drawing her skin against his teeth, he barely nipped, but the fact that she knew he wanted more made her entire body ache with desire.
He tasted her, and her heart raced. It had been so long since she’d felt anything like this. The breathless anticipation of what he might do had her panting. She stared blearily over his shoulder while his hands roamed lower, cupping her bottom.
“Julian…”
“You want this.” It was more of a statement than a question. “Tell me now if you don’t, while I can still walk away from you.”
“No…I mean yes! I want you. Don’t go, please.”
That final word seemed to ignite him. The moment it left her lips, he lifted her in his arms. He swung her around and put her on the bed. The soft mattress sank under him as he climbed over her prone body. His movements were feral, like a jungle cat, and his gaze was predatory.
She raised her hands to the buttons of her sweater, but Julian stopped her. He circled both of her wrists with one hand and trapped her arms above her head. Zoe caught her breath. Fear of submission battled with her need to trust him completely. He would never hurt her—human or vampire, he couldn’t.
She surrendered to his movements, locking her gaze on his. While he held her hands immobile with one hand, he flicked open buttons with the other. One at a time he worked his way down, spreading the edges of the soft knit farther apart with each stop. When he reached her jeans, he kept going, tearing the snap open and tugging the zipper down.
“You smell like sunshine,” he told her when he dipped his head. He pressed his face against her stomach, pushing the edge of her camisole up to reveal soft skin. “You taste so sweet.”
She wanted to respond, but her mind had gone blank. She could only feel and yearn for him to do things to her. To communicate her need, she bucked her hips upward. He tilted his head up to look at her and smiled. “You’re impatient, aren’t you?”
She nodded, her lips curving. “Julian—”
“No. I’m not going to rush this.” With a wicked grin, he released her arms. “Don’t move. You’re all mine.”
She’d never believed anything more in her life. She was entirely his to do with as he pleased. If only he’d get started.
She gasped a moment later when he thrust a hand into her jeans and began to slide them down her legs. “I never liked these things on a woman. When I met you, you were wearing a skirt. So much more feminine and easier to remove.”
“You packed these,” she whispered, but her voice caught when he brought his fingers up and brushed the backs against her hip. Her body tightened in response, wound like a spring, ready for release.
“I packed them for convenience, thinking we might be on the run if anyone traced us here. Now they’re simply in my way.” He tore the jeans the rest of the way off her legs and tossed them across the room. “That’s better.”
Zoe stretched her legs for him, watching his eyes as he took in every inch of her. “Beautiful lines, perfect skin…” He trailed his fingers up from her ankle to her knee cap and pushed her legs apart. “I’ve wanted to bite you…partly because you exasperate me.” He lowered himself to the bed, propped his upper body between her thighs and regarded her from that vantage point.
Zoe squirmed. She wasn’t used to conversing with a man while he worked his fingers inside her panties.
“And partly because I could practically taste you in my dreams. You’re pure…”
“Oh, no I’m not.” She laughed, but the seriousness of his expression stopped her.
“Yes. You are. You’re real. The women I’ve been with since my transformation have been hollow, like sea shells, beautiful but with nothing inside.”
“So I’m an oyster?” She giggled, more from nervousness. Her body practically sparked when he began to work her panties down over her hips. She shivered.
“You’re human.” He pulled her panties off then and dove in, planting his lips on her inner thigh. She gasped as every one of her muscles clenched.
While Zoe shuddered, Julian worked her with one hand, teasing her to ecstasy while he nibbled her inner thigh. She panted and moaned and finally shattered, clutching the soft folds of the comforter in her hands. “Oh, Julian…”
He let her rest for a moment, temporarily satisfied with her shallow breathing and the sleepy, sultry look she gave him. It had been so long since he’d thought of a woman’s pleasure before his own, and she took it so well. Her body moved like a wave, sinuous and loose. When her muscles relaxed, he drew himself up alongside her and slid a hand up under the hem of her camisole.
She trembled for him, and he captured her lips in a kiss that left them both hungry for more.
Barely able to contain himself now, he stripped off his own jeans, damning the heavy fabric. He pulled off his shirt and her sweater, leaving only the thin camisole. Then he lifted her, rolling her on top of him.
With wide eyes, she settled above him, and he sighed as she began to move. From beneath her, he could watch her take pleasure in him, and he loved it.
When he ran his hands over her hips, her waist and up under the shimmery material that still covered her, Zoe leaned back. She was tentative at first, almost shy as she lowered herself onto him.
So tight…her body opened to him slowly. He fought to remain still and to give her the time to adjust to his thickness and length. The vampire would have taken her roughly, not caring for her comfort or her pleasure, but the man reveled in her deliberate movements, her determination to see them both fulfilled.
With silky sighs and a moan that made his muscles clenc
h, she took him in finally and lowered her lithe upper body over his naked chest.
“Slow…” She purred the word, her eyes half closed, her jaw slack. “Go slow with me, Julian.”
Her words drew every muscle in his body taut as a bowstring. Her vulnerability turned him on more than anything ever had. She recognized his ability to harm her, to ravage her because of his size, his experience and his very nature, and she trusted him anyway.
She trusted him.
He anchored her hips and pressed her against him in a gentle but determined movement until her breath caught. “I’ll do anything you say. You command me.” His whispered response came at a price. Self-denial. With his climax rising from the depths, he wanted nothing more than to flip her on her back, cover her with his body and take everything she offered.
But he held himself still, battling with the demon within him to stay calm when she stretched upward and shed her camisole. She lowered her breasts into his waiting palms and hummed as she began to rock.
“Zoe…”
“It’s okay, Julian. You’re not hurting me.”
Oh, but he would. One day, he would.
His body stiffened with the effort to hold his orgasm at bay for a little longer. He wanted to lie here forever and let her use him, but his self-control had frayed to the breaking point. His tenuous hold on reason snapped when he felt the first tremors begin within her.
With a ragged moan, he pulled her roughly down against him and bucked upward just as the explosion surged through him. She cried out, her eyes wide, her spine straight, and he could do nothing but stare at the slim column of her throat when she threw her head back in what he hoped was unbridled pleasure. She shuddered above him as he emptied himself into her.
Zoe had woken to find Julian watching her, toying with a lock of her hair. Now she lay curled next to him, her chin resting on his chest, her fingers exploring the planes and ridges of his body.
Uncross My Heart Page 13