Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Jennifer Ashley

  Tor groaned and shuddered, his big body vibrating against hers, drawing her awareness to it and the position they were in, their bodies tangled together. His grip on her waist tightened, becoming fierce and possessive, thrilling her but setting alight to her fear.

  Had she hurt him?

  She tried to draw back to check and ask, but he shifted one large hand to the back of her head, holding her to his throat, not letting her move an inch.

  She drew her fangs from his throat and sucked. Blood burst into her mouth, overwhelming her. Every cell fired in response. Every nerve lit up. It set her aflame and left her burning up, melting as her blood turned to ashes and she felt Tor’s strength flowing into her, his spicy taste sliding down her throat and warming her belly.

  She couldn’t handle it.

  She was going to overload or short out and lose consciousness. It was too much.

  Tor stroked the back of her neck, massaging it, applying pressure that sent more tingles sweeping down her spine and brought her focus to him, pushing the overwhelming new sensations bombarding her to the back of her mind.

  She sucked another mouthful of his blood and swallowed it, and he palmed her neck again and moaned. For every pull on his blood she made, she felt as if she was going to drown, but every time it began to overwhelm her, Tor would stroke her neck and bring her back to him. He was keeping her with him and keeping her grounded, stealing her awareness back to him.

  That awareness of him, of his powerful body against hers, brought with it a startling realisation.

  He was growing hard.

  It was turning him on.

  Eve immediately pulled back and couldn’t look at him as she asked, “Do you always react like this?”

  Just like that, a thousand faceless women paraded through her mind, a slew of beauties that Tor had probably taken blood from like this, or worse, while he was inside them.

  She tried to push out of his arms but he clamped his hands around her waist and held her so tightly that she couldn’t move.

  She closed her eyes and turned her face to one side, escaping him as best she could when he refused to release her.

  “Eve,” he said, a note of warning in his voice but softness too, as if he knew her thoughts and wanted to soothe her.

  It only made her feel worse. She cringed, hating that he might have seen through her so easily and witnessed the reason why she couldn’t look him in the eye or even be in the same room as him. She wanted some air.

  She needed some space.

  She needed to get off him.

  Eve slapped at his bare chest and shoved against it, trying to break free. He only tightened his grip, until she felt sure he would shatter her ribcage with the force of it.

  “Eve.” He struggled with her but she didn’t relent. She kept pushing, kept ignoring him and his attempts to win her back over. She wouldn’t be just another foolish woman throwing herself at him, letting him have his way with her so he could discard her and move on to the next one.

  So he could betray her.

  She shouldn’t have bitten him.

  She shouldn’t have let him seduce her into doing something she had vowed would never happen.

  She wanted to retch.

  Eve gagged and Tor’s grip on her loosened, but not enough that she could escape.

  “Eve… breathe… just breathe.” His soft, steady voice pleaded her and she felt his emotions, experienced his need to calm her and make her feel better.

  She hadn’t even realised she had stopped breathing.

  She let out her breath in a rush, surprised she didn’t throw up at the same time.

  Her stomach settled again.

  “You’re too young not to breathe,” he murmured and she jerked away when he tried to stroke her face.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  “I never react like this, Eve. Never… but I can’t seem to control myself when you’re touching me. I’ve tried to keep my distance… I’ve tried so hard but it’s impossible and I’m tired of fighting it.” He sighed and released her, and she couldn’t bring herself to move, no longer had the energy or the will.

  Her eyes crept back to his throat and the twin trails of red tracking down it.

  “Eve,” he whispered, his voice rough and low, bordering on hurt and desperate, feelings that echoed within her. “Look at me.”

  When she finally convinced her eyes to raise from his neck, his were red again, burning intensely.

  “Whatever you have in your head, it’s wrong.” He took a deep breath. “I just want you, Eve.”

  “You just want my blood,” she countered, bitterness making her words sharp.

  He shook his head.

  “No.” He took her hand and lowered it to the rock hard bulge in his black jeans. “This is all about you, Eve. Not your blood. You’re so damn beautiful. I want you.”

  He held her with his eyes and she couldn’t look away, couldn’t move as her anger faded, melting under the intense heat of his gaze and his heartfelt words that struck a chord in her.

  “I’ve never needed anyone as much as I need you.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Eve pressed her palms against Tor’s bare chest, leaned in and captured his lips with hers. He responded immediately, his mouth mastering hers, dominant and aggressive, speaking of his passion and need.

  Passion and need that existed inside her too, driving her to surrender to them, to give herself over to pleasure and the moment.

  She had never wanted anyone as much as she wanted Tor.

  His arms slid around her back, iron bands that caged her against him, thrilling her. She fought for dominance, her lips clashing with his and tongue duelling. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair, rising up on her knees. He tipped his head back and slid lower in the chair, bringing the lower half of their bodies into contact. Heat rippled through her, pooling in her belly, lingering there.

  Tor grasped her hips and pressed her down against the bulge in his jeans, a moan leaving his lips as the contact between them increased. She couldn’t stop herself from rocking against him, rubbing her aching core against his hard length, seeking pleasure from the delicious friction. A thousand shivers tripped through her, setting every nerve ending alight, filling her with sensation that almost overwhelmed her. Her heightened senses made everything more intense, until she felt certain she would overload this time, would pass out before she even found release.

  She couldn’t risk the wait.

  She slipped one hand between them and fumbled with his jeans, wrestling with them and growling when she couldn’t get them undone. Tor helped her, a low groan ripping up his throat as he unbuttoned his jeans with one hand and shoved them open. Her hand immediately found his length and she rubbed it from the thick blunt head all the way down the steel-hard shaft. He groaned again, a guttural sound that tore a moan from her in response.

  She pulled her top off and freed her breasts, the cool air like bliss on her overheating flesh.

  Eve wriggled, trying to find a glimmer of pleasure, a flicker of release from the growing need within her. She grabbed Tor’s hand and pressed it to her core. The second he palmed her through the damp material of her knickers, she trembled and collapsed into him, a fierce fire rushing through her.

  It was too much.

  She hadn’t realised that everything had become heightened after waking as a vampire, that everything would be affected by her transition, even pleasure.

  He palmed her again, the heel of his hand pressing into her clitoris, and she barked out a moan and shuddered against him, clutching his shoulders to anchor herself.

  He murmured something in his native tongue against her shoulder and kissed it, working his way back to her mouth. Eve seized him, her lips claiming his, devouring him, a slave to the pleasure overwhelming her, tearing her between continuing and pulling away.

  She rocked against him, desperate thrusts that brought more pain than pleasure, her arousal building to start
ling heights.

  “Tor,” Eve whispered, more a moan than his name, a plea to him to do something, anything that would help her through this madness.

  She couldn’t take it.

  She flexed her muscles, groaning as the simple twitch sent a wave of bliss surging through her.

  “Need… you…” she said between kisses and sucked on his lower lip, pulling it hard into her mouth, nipping it with her fangs. “Now.”

  He had anchored her when she had bitten him and the pleasure of it had threatened to make her short out. He had to anchor her now in the storm of sensation whirling inside her like a tornado, on the verge of ripping her apart.

  Tor growled, tore her panties from her and was in her in one deep, powerful thrust. Eve cried out at the sudden invasion. The sting of his cock plunging fast into her body, stretching it to accommodate him, made white spots wink across her vision. She clung to his shoulders, digging her claws in to anchor herself and cried out again as he withdrew and thrust back in, so deep she could feel all of him.

  He stilled, only his mouth moving against hers, and she wriggled on him, began rocking on his length. Intense ecstasy flowed through her with each undulation of her hips, each slow withdraw and downward plunge. Tor groaned and kissed her harder, one hand claiming her hip in a tight grip and the other spreading across her back between her shoulder blades.

  She leaned back as he kissed down her throat to her chest, and cried out as he wrapped his lips around her left nipple and tugged it into his mouth, sending fire skittering across her skin and shooting down to the point where their bodies joined. She kept rocking her hips into him, riding his hard length with slow deliberate thrusts that she could just about handle. Any faster and she feared she would pass out in his arms, and she didn’t want to lose consciousness until she had found release and felt Tor find his.

  Tor sucked at her breasts and moved beneath her, gentle thrusts of his hips that rubbed her with his cock in a delicious way, one that had her forgetting she was meant to move too. He moaned and shoved her hip down, forcing her onto him, thrusting him deeper into her heat. She groaned and clung to him, rising off him and driving down again, loving the way he moaned against her breast whenever their bodies met and he was seated to the hilt in her.

  She lost herself in him, in the connection between them that had never felt so strong and intense, enveloping her and leaving her feeling unsure of where he ended and she began. She had never felt this connected to anyone before. None of her past lovers had made her feel as Tor did.

  He made her feel alive.

  He leaned back, drawing her with him, and seized her hips again, controlling her movements and quickening the pace of their lovemaking. Intense heat rolled through her, the pleasure mind-blowing, maddening her as she sought release with him, desperately reaching for it even though she didn’t want this to end.

  She had thought biting him was incredible and intoxicating. Making love with him triggered every sense that she had to a painful degree. Taste. Touch. Smell. Sight. Hearing. Every part of her came alive under his touch and his kiss.

  She found his mouth again, tangling her tongue with his, drugged by his taste. Masculine. Spicy. Earthy.

  All Tor.

  All too much for her to handle.

  She grasped his hands on her hips as darkness encroached at the corners of her mind, stopping him from thrusting, needing a moment to catch her breath.

  “Eve?” Tor drew back and looked at her, his gaze intense and focused, concerned. She opened her eyes and looked into his, and something beautiful dawned in their crimson depths. A smile curved his kiss-swollen lips, devastating and alluring, drawing her back to him. “I know what you’re feeling… or at least a shadow of it. It’s been so long for me that it’s a little overwhelming.”

  That stole the breath from her lungs and made her heart lurch into her throat.

  She had figured him for a man with appetites, both violent and carnal ones, but he was telling her that he hadn’t been with a woman in a long time. On top of what he had said to her before about never feeling as he did around her, it left her speechless.

  “Open yourself to it, Eve,” he whispered thickly, keeping her with him, drawing all of her focus back to him again and what they were doing, how they were intimately connected still, both of them wound tight with need. “Don’t fight it. Let it wash over you and take it all in. It’s what I’m doing.”

  Eve nodded and released his hands, clutching his shoulders again. She began rocking on him, trying to let herself go at the same time, to release the hold she had on herself and her fear and trust that everything was going to be alright.

  Tor slid lower in the chair, the position putting him deeper inside her with each thrust, and she moaned as she kissed him and pleasure flowed over her, ebbed through her, consumed all of her. She rode his cock, tearing moans from him that ripped ones from her, kissing him deeply as she tangled her fingers in his blond hair. She let it all flow into her, opened herself to it, and it was wild. Hot. Intense. Passionate.

  And she felt that he was with her the whole time as they writhed against each other, desperately reaching for the same goal, for release that promised to be earth-shattering.

  She screwed her eyes shut as the pressure built, the pace of Tor’s thrusts increasing, as if he had sensed she was close and was right there with her, experiencing the same overload of pleasure propelling him towards climax.

  She rocked on him, wilder now, lost to sensation and a slave to it, no longer in control of herself.

  Tor grasped her hips and thrust deeper, harder, claiming all of her.

  Eve shattered into a thousand pieces and then fragmented into a thousand more. She cried into Tor’s mouth as incredible heat detonated within her, sending every inch of her trembling and pulsing, clutching at Tor as he continued to thrust, taking her higher. Out of her mind. She moaned and bit down on his lower lip, holding it in her teeth as she quivered and tingled, throbbed and melted, her breath stuck in her throat.

  Tor grunted and shoved her down on his shaft, jerking up at the same time. He throbbed inside her, each pulse shooting cool seed into her. She trembled in response, slowly collapsing into him, all the strength leaving her, until she was boneless on his lap with her head resting on his shoulder.

  He lay there beneath her for what seemed like hours, cradling her against him, running one hand up and down her spine.

  Eve’s eyes slipped closed and she brushed a kiss across his chest.

  He moved, his soft length slipping free of her body, and somehow managed to stand with her. He set her down on her feet, stripped off, and pulled all the sheets off the bed. He threw a blanket over the mattress and then picked her up and set her down on it. He joined her, pulling some of the blanket over her and tucking her against his side.

  “Sleep.” His arms settled around her, pinning her close to him, and she hooked her right leg over both of his, grimacing as her wound ached.

  “I’m not tired.” She managed to get the words out before her eyes closed again and she settled more heavily against him, unable to convince her body to move or her mind to stay alert.

  It wasn’t the sex or the blood, or even the waning night making sleep overcome her.

  It was the feel of his arms around her.

  They made her realise how tired she was and how vulnerable she had felt since her death, constantly on the edge and looking over her shoulder.

  Tor’s arms around her, his strong arms holding her tucked close to him and sheltering her, and his steady gaze on her, gave her leave to lower her guards and she had done just that without realising it. Fatigue had come crashing in and she didn’t have the strength to fight it.

  She didn’t need to.

  Tor would keep her safe.

  He would watch over her.

  He would never let anything happen to her.

  For the first time in her life, she had found a place where she didn’t have to be strong.

  In the arm
s of a vampire.

  CHAPTER 11

  Eve woke to Tor growling. Adrenaline rushed through her in response and she reached out with her senses, searching the hotel room for danger. Nothing. She pushed herself up and looked down at Tor.

  He was asleep.

  He shifted restlessly on the bed and pulled her closer, settling once her body came back into contact with his. What was he dreaming in there?

  She studied him as he held her moulded against his strong, naked body. He wasn’t breathing. He hadn’t breathed most of the time they had been together. Her training had told her that only old vampires forgot the instinct to breathe, so how old was Tor? He looked in his late thirties to her, but she knew he was far older than he appeared. He was strong, and strength often came with age in vampires.

  Eve ghosted her fingers over his cheek. He looked more handsome in sleep, the usually hard planes of his face softened by it, making him more angel than devil again. His lips were still a shade darker than normal, stained by her blood.

  She leaned forwards and brushed a kiss across them.

  He moaned and held her closer. “You should be sleeping.”

  She didn’t want to sleep. She was wide awake now and wanted a shower, and to prepare things for their move tonight.

  As soon as night fell, Tor would want to leave and take her to the Vehemens mansion outside of the city. She didn’t want to go to a place filled with vampires. She didn’t think she could cope with it. She was comfortable with only Tor for company, a new partner in crime she felt certain would never betray her because she knew deep in her heart that he would never do anything to hurt her.

  Quite the opposite. He wanted to keep her safe.

  She had never wanted to let a man do that, but she could accept it from Tor. She could let him shield her in his arms and weather every storm for her. She could do it because with him it wouldn’t irritate her. It would make her feel special.

  She pushed that thought away and focused on him instead. He was asleep again, his face slack with it, settled and peaceful. A contrast to the hardened male that accompanied her on scouting missions and talked to her of torture and betrayal, and his life as a vampire.