Of course, if Jake’s efforts to cleanse her blood hadn’t worked, the question of whether they needed to hide in the past would be irrelevant. Taking a deep breath, Jake rose up on one elbow and looked down at Lee Anne’s face. Gently sweeping silky stray strands of hair away from her face, he swallowed hard. He was so afraid of waking her, of discovering the tainted vampire blood had turned her into a sadistic killer. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful, so incredibly perfect in every way imaginable to him.
* * *
Jake’s voice was a low, barely audible whisper in Lee Anne’s mind. Darkness surrounded her, but it wasn’t frightening at all. It was comforting. The thought of following him entered her mind, but it was nearly impossible to focus on the sound of his voice. It seemed so far away. Besides, returning to him meant returning to a world of excruciating pain. She could still remember the syringe piercing her skin and the terrible fire that spread through her entire body. She couldn’t return to it. She wouldn’t. Not even for him.
She turned away from the sound of his voice and moved further away from him, moved deeper into the darkness. But seemingly unwilling to allow her to go further away, he followed her. He was insistent. He was so demanding. He promised there would be no pain. His voice grew louder, more urgent. He kept calling out her name, attempting to coax her out of the darkness. A small part of her wanted to follow him, but she was reluctant to leave the place that brought her absolute comfort.
“I can’t. Please, let me go, Jake,” she whispered. But then, though she was so very afraid of the pain that awaited her, she found herself turning around and moving toward him. She couldn’t stop. He kept calling out her name. She tried to stop, but she couldn’t do it. It was his voice. She knew he was using a spell or a compulsion. It was impossible to defy.
His love curled around her and ignited a flame, a sweet, decadent fire that speared over her flesh. She was still surrounded by darkness, but she was skin to skin with Jake, submerged in his warmth. Bracing for the pain that was certain to take hold her body, she tensed. His body was wrapped around hers, and his arms held her close. She waited, but the pain didn’t come.
She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn’t find the strength. It didn’t matter. She was safe. She was completely relaxed. So much more than ever before. She allowed herself to drift on a breeze of tranquility, listening to the sound of his heart beating, knowing it was carrying her closer to him.
Something was different. She was different. Her senses were heightened. Her hunger burned like never before. Her body was aroused and ached in ways she’d never experienced. She heard more than the whisper of wind outside. She heard the voices of people talking though she knew they were far away. And … the clomping of a … a horse? It was far off. It seemed to be fading, moving further away. And then, it was gone.
Her entire focus narrowed in on the sound of Jake’s heart beating and the warm sensation of his body against hers. She snuggled up closer to him. His pulse was so erotic to her. It whispered to her, stirring her hunger for his blood to greater heights.
She breathed deeply, inhaling his masculine scent. She’d always loved to breathe in his scent, to fill her lungs with him, but now the pleasure of it was somehow so much more intense than ever before. She listened to his slow, steady breathing over her head and felt his heart beating against her cheek. Her need for him was so incredibly urgent; her thirst for his blood was a fiery need she had no choice but to quench. Her mouth watered. Her stomach twisted. Her muscles burned hotly with need, with hunger.
The truth hit her hard and fast: she was fantasizing about drinking his blood. She tried to yank herself out of his arms, but she found herself on her back, pinned beneath his weight, staring up at him. “Let me get up, Jake!”
“No.” He smiled that slow, sexy smile that always wreaked such glorious havoc in her body and mind. She was on fire, burning up with such intense, pressing need.
“I’m serious,” she insisted, even as she was arching her body into his. “You’re in danger. Something is wrong with me.”
Laughing softly, he framed her face between his hands and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Kiss me.”
She felt a peculiar, powerful push in his voice. He was trying to get into her mind, and it was irritating the hell out of her. “No!” She shook her head. He didn’t understand. He was in danger. How could she want to consume his blood? She was a monster. A vampire. Her breath caught in her throat.
* * *
Jake understood that she feared she would hurt him. He knew she was confused. But he’d never felt so much joy. It was obvious by her concern for him that the tainted blood hadn’t destroyed her. He bent his head so the words were whispered against her throat. “What you’re feeling is natural. You’re not a monster, love. Far from it.” And then he lifted his head and smiled widely, purposely allowing her to see his fangs as he swiped his tongue over them. “It’s okay. I want you to hunger for my blood as I do for yours.” His voice deepened.
“No,” she whispered, eyes going wide, her gaze locked onto his fangs. “My head feels weird. I’m dizzy. Everything seems distant. Something inside me wants to kill you.” Swallowing hard, she met his gaze. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Your head feels strange because you’re not breathing. Besides that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, love.”
Being so close to him, feeling his bare flesh against hers, was making her insane with lust. Not just lust. It was dark, savage hunger growing, consuming her senses fully and completely. Every inch of her skin and every cell in her body burned for his blood and his body.
He brushed a kiss on top of her head. “It never should’ve happened this way.” He took a deep breath and released it with a sigh. “I know you’re confused. You don’t really want to hurt me.”
Her head was pounding. She felt so irritable. Angry. Frustrated. “Really?” He thought she didn’t want to hurt him, but she felt as if she were a wild, savage predator and he the prey she was seeking to devour. “Right now, I want to … damn it, Jake. I want sink my teeth into you. I want to drink your blood.”
He laughed softly. His reaction made her angrier. “That’s not a bad thing to me.” Smiling, his hand came up to sweep her hair from her face. “What else do you want from me, love?”
Lust washed over her in enormous waves, and she closed her eyes. She felt the heat and thickness of his cock pressed against the entrance of her body. “I want all of you. I want … no.” She opened her eyes to look up at him. Every muscle in her body ached for him. “I need all of you.” She arched and wiggled her body against his so that the broad head of his cock was pressed more firmly against her. “I need to feel you deep inside my body.” She was so hot, so wet with desperate need for him to fill her.
He bent his head so that she felt the heat of his breath on her breasts. “Since I’m having trouble understanding it, please tell me what part is supposed to hurt me.” He gently bit her right nipple, and then he cupped her breast in his hand and swirled his tongue over her nipple before he drew it in his mouth to suckle on it.
“Oh, God, Jake.” She tangled his hair in her fists. “You need to stop.” She tried to pull him back even as she arched her body to offer her breast to him. She felt a low growl vibrate in his chest as he bit down on her nipple a little harder and then soothed the sting with a caress of his tongue. “I just told you that I’m fantasizing about drinking your blood.” Despite the warmth of his body blanketing hers, she shivered.
He lifted his head and met her gaze. “I’ve been fantasizing about devouring your blood for a very long time.” She heard the ring of truth in his voice. She saw it in his eyes.
He pressed into her, slowing stretching her. Her pulse quickened. She held her breath for a few seconds. She wanted him to take her blood. She let her breath out. “It’s wrong.” It was so against everything she’d ever known. And yet, she wanted him to take her blood.
“Not to me,” he whispered as, legs trembling
, she dug her nails in his ass and lifted her hips while he pushed his cock deeper inside her. “I’m a vampire, love. I’ve always needed blood to survive. And you’re like me now. You need blood to survive, but you will never kill to get it.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I will always, happily provide for you.” His lips parted in a sensual smile. He looked so incredibly sexy. So naughty. “And I happen to be a very jealous man. I’m certain I could never deal with you nibbling on another man’s neck.”
He was teasing her. Well, maybe not. She didn’t doubt he was serious.
Remaining completely silent, she stared into his eyes, turning his words over and over in her mind. He was a vampire. She was a vampire. Vampires consumed blood. The silence spread a long time. She knew he wasn’t going to rush her. He’d always been patient with her. And now wasn’t any different. He was waiting for her to embrace the wicked desires welling up in her.
She bit her lower lip hard. Wincing, she licked her lip and tasted blood. Shocking her, he dipped his head and lapped at it. Groaning, he suckled her lip. The thought of him tasting her blood and savoring it devoured her inhibitions and caused her hunger for his blood and his body to increase.
And yet, she didn’t understand why, after spending so much time together, he was just now, after planning to hand her over to another man, deciding to want her as a lover. “Why are you doing this now, Jake?” Even if the truth hurt, she had to know. But she turned her head to escape his gaze.
“Look at me.” She did. “I’m in love with you. I have always been and will always be in love with you, only you. I’ve always known it. I was being an idiot, Lee Anne.” Tracing her lips with his finger, he sighed softly. “I’ve always known we belonged together. I’ve always known I could never hand you over to another man. I’m sorry it took so long for me to come to terms with it.”
* * *
Just then it happened. He watched unfettered lust swell in her until it became her. He took a breath and held it. Her heart was pounding. His heart was pounding. Releasing his breath with a hiss, he focused on the intoxicating sound of her rapid pulse echoing in his head. His tension heightened. It stretched to a breaking point. His hunger grew sharply, quickly. He fought for control but lost the battle.
Gripping her hips, he thrust hard and deep. Throwing her head back, she screamed out his name as an orgasm ripped through her body. Her muscles tightened around him, gripping onto him. Never. Not once in his entire existence had he fought so hard to prevent himself from climaxing too soon. Buried deep inside her hot sheath, he froze, his muscles tensed to the point of pain with the effort it took to remain still. Because if he moved, if he even dared to take a breath, he was going to explode.
She writhed and bucked beneath him. He moved again, thrusting wildly, plunging deep. Wave after wave of raw lust washed over her, filled her. Her fingers dug into the muscled contours of his back. He was wild. He was so hard. So hot. So big. Stretching her. He was creating the most hot, scintillating friction. She was on the verge of another orgasm when his teeth scraped her neck. His lips and tongue teased her. She could feel the intensity of his need, thirst for her blood beating at her.
He lifted his head. “Look at me.” He drove into her again and again. The raw lust in his darkening gaze caused her pulse to race. A small whimper escaped her throat. She tried, but she couldn’t look away from his gaze. It truth, she didn’t want to look away as he plunged into her again and again.
He was pushing her over the edge. She felt her mind, her soul shattering into tiny pieces. She really wanted to taste his blood. He leaned down and found her lips with his. Then, he was kissing her neck. She felt him in her mind. Her soul. She was in his. She knew he preparing to take her blood as he continued to slam deep inside her body.
There was a sudden, sharp pain on her neck that burst into mid-blowing pleasure. He was pumping into her. Fast. Hard. He was feasting on her blood. The orgasm that hit her was so beyond anything she’d ever imagined. She wanted his blood. She needed his blood. She was beyond thought. She felt his rock-hard, throbbing cock swell even more as he surged wildly into and her body convulsed around it.
* * *
Nothing compared to the sweet taste of her blood, to the experience taking it into his body. No other blood would ever satisfy him again. He now, for the first time, understood why mated couples only took blood from each other.
It hit him so hard and fast that it shook him to the core. Her body was squeezing, gripping his cock with a vengeance. An explosive orgasm like no other he’d ever experienced shook him as her sweet blood filled his mouth. There was no holding the orgasm back. His entire body shuddered from the pain and pleasure of it as it tore through his body.
He continued pumping his hips. With long, leisurely strokes, he made love to her as he held her gaze captive. He was so amazed by what had just happened. Perhaps, he thought, he was even in a state of shock. He’d experienced sex with women before, but he’d never experienced making love to his woman. Sex would never again be enough. Her hands, her fingers were touching him, tracing his muscles. His flesh was so ultra-sensitive to her touch. He’d never experienced anything like this. He couldn’t believe he didn’t know all along that they belonged together. So many years had been wasted.
She felt something stirring in her. It was like another being. It was violent. Ravenous. Uncontrollable. Her teeth ached. She felt the sharp point of fangs picking her cheeks. “Jake?”
“It’s okay.” He was still aching, still impossibly hard. No matter how many times he made love to her, he would never have enough. “Don’t resist it, Lee Anne.” He moved faster, thrusting his hips, building the momentum, creating more hot friction. “Embrace it.”
“It’s too intense. It’s too uncontrollable.”
“Intense is good.” Slowing his movement, pumping his hips, creating just enough friction to make her want more, he cupped her breast and bent his head. “There’s nothing wrong with intense.” He swirled his tongue over her nipple. “Uncontrollable is also very good,” he whispered against her breast before he kissed his way from her breast up her neck.
Making sure he stayed buried deep inside her body, he took her with him as he rolled over. His back against the headboard, he framed her face in his hands and kissed her briefly before he leaned his head back to expose his neck to her. He could easily put her under his control and force her to unknowingly take his blood. He’d already given her his blood to dilute the tainted blood several times as she remained unconscious, but he wanted … no. He needed her to take it from him of her own free will.
She was already moving, riding his hard cock, taking pleasure in impaling herself again and again. The hunger was so intense in her that she couldn’t deny it. Nuzzling his neck, she whispered his name in his ear. When the first touch of her lips caused his body to shudder, she was amazed that she could cause his body to react like that. She scraped her teeth back and forth over his skin. She kissed and licked his neck, teasing him, testing his reaction.
And then, unable to deny her thirst for his blood any longer, she buried her teeth deep. His hands griped her hips as he drove up into her hard and fast, over and over again. Moaning with pleasure, she drew his blood into her mouth. He tasted like hot, wild passion. She felt his power, his life, flowing into her, filling her. In that moment, she knew they were bound together. They were connected together as one for all of time. Another orgasm building, she rode his cock harder, faster, until they both reached the same glorious climax. Exhausted, they collapsed into each other’s arms.
Watching Lee Anne sleep, Jake started to get worried. He had another big problem on his hands, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it. Eventually, as it was only a matter of time before she left the room and figured it out, he needed to explain to her that they were now living in the 1600s. It was sure to upset her even though it was only for a year and he’d made the decision for her own good. She was modern woman with a love for modern-day technol
ogy.
Well, then … he blanketed her body with his … he would just have to do his best to keep her in the room for as long as possible.
Here’s a free excerpt of the first book in this series:
Eternal Breath of Darkness
~ One ~
TAKING A DEEP breath, savoring the sweetness of her lingering scent, Haden Drake watched Caylee Adams walk toward Mia’s Clothing Boutique. He shifted, repositioning the seam of his pants, attempting to lessen the terrible ache that was becoming his most loyal, frustrating as hell companion. There was a small chance his attempt to get a little more comfortable would’ve worked if she hadn’t dropped her phone and bent over to pick it up. Shuddering, he uttered a curse, his cock swelling until it was impossibly hard, nearly bursting out of his pants. She was sexy in anything, but nothing compared to the way the worn fabric of those tight, low-rise jeans hugged her ass at that moment.
He, a demon, was the furthest thing from a saint, and pretending to be one was no longer an option. For a year he’d battled against his powerful, volatile sex drive, but day after day the torment of wanting her and not having her had been building into a fierce, unstoppable storm of raw lust. Every night he dreamed of her writhing beneath him, calling out his name in sheer ecstasy as he plunged deep inside the tight, silky heat of her body. She wasn’t ready for him to stake his claim on her, but the season for moving slowly, seducing her gently, was long gone. Despite his great power, he was utterly powerless to deny his insatiable hunger for her any longer.
Just before entering the boutique, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. It was a naughty, wickedly sexy smile. If he didn’t know her better, he would’ve thought she’d purposely bent over to torment him. Had she? Rejecting the thought, he shook his head. “Nah.” Teasing wasn’t her style. Once she was out of sight, he was unable shake the feeling something wasn’t quite right. Every second that went by the feeling of uneasiness increased in him so much that his centuries-learned ability to remain absolutely calm under pressure failed. It was her smile. Something about it was raising a red flag. He would never admit it, but the moment she turned to smile at him, chasing after her was inevitable.
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