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

by Jennifer Ashley

  Tor paused on the threshold, his gaze zeroing in on Eve.

  She was beautiful.

  Her black ball gown hugged her trim figure, accentuating the sweeping curve of her waist as the corset flared out into a full skirt. Long black gloves reached past her elbows, her fingers clutching a full glass of blood that she hadn’t taken a sip from. He smiled inside. No doubt she had taken it to appease her hosts and had no intention of drinking it.

  His hungry gaze roamed over the soft swells of her breasts and up her unmarked throat. Her lack of bite scar always hit him hard. For some reason, he found it alluring and enticing, erotic. It made him hunger to bite her. No one had ever marked her pale flesh. She was untouched by his kind. He wanted to be the one to mark her, to make the world aware that she had given herself to him in a most intimate way, even though he knew she deserved better. He couldn’t be the man she deserved. He wished that he could, but he would never be good enough for her.

  All he could do was stand at a distance and watch her bloom, growing in confidence as she came to accept herself and embraced her new life.

  All he could do was wish he could be the one who stood beside her, basking in her radiance, worthy of her affection.

  Tor forced himself to look at the men around her. There were upwards of a dozen of them, all dressed in fine tailored black suits, all polished to perfection as they smiled and talked, catching her attention. All of them vied for the chance to speak with her, and when they had to wait their turn, they would gaze at her figure, studying her dangerous curves with blatant desire in their eyes.

  He despised how they stared at her and found excuses to touch her. Even an innocent tap on her arm fired him up with a possessive need to tear the male away from her.

  One of the men’s eyes came to him and he leaned towards her. “Your servant is here. Does he want something?”

  Tor bit back a snarl and turned on his heel to leave.

  Someone grasped his wrist and he growled over his shoulder at them, warning them to unhand him. Eve frowned at him.

  “Stay,” she whispered, her dark eyes pleading him to do as she had asked.

  “I would rather not.” He pulled his arm free of her hand and faced her.

  She looked down at her feet, over her shoulder at the crowd, and then back up into his eyes. “Would you rather I leave with you?”

  Every instinct he possessed screamed at him to say yes. Tor said, “No.”

  Eve sighed, her alluring red lips parting with it, stealing his attention for a moment and almost swaying him into saying that he would stay if she kissed him now, here in front of all of these men who wanted her.

  “If you leave, then I leave,” she said and he knew she would carry out that threat. She couldn’t leave now, when the ball had only just begun. He didn’t want her gaining a bad reputation within the family for his sake.

  He reluctantly nodded. “Very well. I will stay.”

  She looked as if she was thinking about taking his hand so he jammed them into his jeans pockets. A sour look flitted across her face before she smiled again and held the glass of blood out to him.

  “Save me… they expect me to drink it. I think I might vomit if I try. My act as the good Chosen Daughter has its limits.”

  Tor took the glass from her, brushing his fingers across hers at the same time. The feel of her silk gloves made him want to groan. Devil, the things she could do to him while wearing those. He forced his mind out of the gutter and eyed the blood.

  “You are not hungry?” he said.

  “Oh, I’m hungry… but not for blood from a glass.” Her eyes slipped to his neck and she licked her lips.

  Tor necked the blood to stop himself from offering up a vein to her right that moment. He glared at the men still staring after her. What would they think if they knew she had bitten him? Would she be tainted by association? Would they even care?

  They would probably want her to bite them to erase his blood in her hot little body.

  He set the glass down on a side table and followed Eve as she led the way. He undid another button as she approached the men and tugged his shirt collar open enough to expose the marks on his throat.

  Her marks.

  Women joined the group, all twittering about Eve, who didn’t look comfortable with their attention. In fact, she looked ready to bolt half the time and kept pressing her hand against her left thigh.

  He smiled to himself. The little huntress had come to the party armed and dangerous.

  The thought of her wearing a knife strapped to her slender thigh, of pushing up the layers of her dress to find it secured there, sent his mind back to the gutter. He passed a blissful few minutes completely unaware of the world as he imagined stroking her thigh, brushing the knife, taking it off with his teeth before moving upwards. He wanted to spread her thighs and taste her with his tongue, ached with a need to spear her core with it and hear her moan his name.

  Her dress brushed his legs, dragging him back to the ballroom, and he found her staring up at him, a dark look in her eyes. Had he done something wrong?

  Not him, he realised as he heard the whispered remarks about him that ran through the crowd and caught a few of the disgusted looks. She was upset with the vampires in this household again.

  He tried to tune out the vicious comments, but it was hard when Eve was with him and his mind kept bringing up how they couldn’t be further apart. He was viewed as nothing more than a servant, or something even lower than that rank. She was viewed as the elite, holding a position most aspired to achieve.

  “I need some air,” Eve said, bringing him out of the mire of his darkening mood. Several men jumped on the chance to help her to the garden, as if she was an invalid and couldn’t walk the short distance without assistance. No doubt the bastards had nefarious agendas that would come into play once they had Eve alone. He wanted to kill every single one of them. She turned to him. “Walk with me?”

  Tor nodded and swept his hand towards the open doors. She bustled ahead of him, her dress swishing as she moved. He threw a wicked victorious grin at the men and followed her.

  The moment she hit the flagstones of the raised patio, she lifted the skirt of her dress out of her way and began pacing. Tor shook his head at the sight of her boots beneath her dress. The household had probably given her heeled shoes to wear, not realising that Eve wouldn’t put anything on her feet that wasn’t practical. He was surprised she had donned the dress without complaining about it hindering her if a battle broke out.

  Then again, she might have. He had done his best to shut her out most of the time she had been dressing. The rest of the time, he had been lost in fantasies about her.

  Tor walked to the carved stone balustrade that edged the patio and stared up at the scattered clouds racing across the moon. He had always liked it when there was a full moon and it shone through patches in broken thin clouds, casting a white glow around their edges.

  Eve stomped around behind him. “Have I mentioned how much I hate them?”

  “Several times. Behaviour most unfitting of a Chosen Daughter,” Tor said with a smile and listened to the night while watching the moon. Insects moved in the rose bushes below him and an owl hooted in the distance.

  “Well, I hate them… all of them… and I don’t give a toss if that makes me a bad person.” She huffed and came up behind him. “They have no right to speak about you like that.”

  Tor’s lips curved again. No one had ever treated him the way Eve did, standing in his corner and willing to take on the world if they dared to badmouth him. It was a strange sensation and one he wasn’t sure he would ever grow used to.

  He turned his back on the moon, rested his elbows behind him on the stone banister, and studied her. She was beautiful bathed in pale light, washing the colour from her red lips, making them appear almost black and far more tempting.

  “Ugh… I want to stab them all,” she muttered, her brow crinkling with her frown and lips pursing.

  To
r reached out and smoothed his hand across her cheek. She fell silent, the air between them crackling as he held her with his touch and his gaze, staring deep into her eyes. Her chest rose and fell with each hard inhalation. They came quicker as she looked at him, desire beginning to chase the anger from her beguiling eyes.

  He brushed his fingers along the line of her jaw, drawing her to him, and used his thumb to tilt her head back. He slowly lowered his mouth and gently kissed her, sweeping his lips across hers in a teasing way that almost undid him. Heat flowed through him as she pressed her palms against his chest and leaned into him, bringing their bodies into contact, pressing him back against the balustrade.

  Tor wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him, and flicked a glance at the ballroom beyond her. The men moved around in it, raking their eyes over other women. Men who had wanted to claim Eve as their own.

  Tor growled against her lips and crushed them in a fierce kiss. She gasped into his mouth and then met him, matching his ferocity, her tongue duelling with his. It wasn’t enough. He scooped her into his arms, stepped up onto the balustrade and leaped into the garden below. She clutched his shoulders as he landed in a crouch, not breaking the kiss, and he rose to his feet. He set her in front of him again, grasping her waist in a bruising grip, unable to be gentle with her when every instinct drove him to possess her.

  He backed her into the shadows, against the wall of the house beyond the patio, where no one would see them. She panted between kisses, her fervour intoxicating him, driving his instincts, telling him that she welcomed this possession. She wanted to be his.

  He snarled and shoved her back against the wall, ripping a husky moan from her lips. He swooped on them again and pushed her up the wall, grabbed her legs and forced her to wrap them around his waist. She rocked against him, her warm core scalding his aching cock through his jeans. He needed to be inside her.

  Eve twisted her fingers in his hair, anchoring her to him, as if he would ever willingly give her up. She was his whether she liked it or not, and it was time she knew it.

  He fought the layers of her dress as he kissed her, his frustration mounting as he kept finding another one and another blocking his way to her. When he finally broke through them all and pressed his palm to her, he groaned and shuddered. She was naked and wet against his flesh.

  He drew back, breathing hard, needing to know why the hell she had been parading around other men with no underwear on.

  She gave him a mischievous smile. “I was hoping you’d come down.”

  Devil. He growled and took possession of her mouth again, driving her back against the wall as he fumbled with his jeans, coming close to ripping them open in order to free himself. When the last button gave, he shoved them down enough to release his cock, took hold of it, and rubbed it down the length of her. She moaned, the sound sweet and enticing, demanding he do it again.

  He stroked her with the blunt head, fighting his need to be inside her, wanting to give her what she desired. He rubbed her swollen nub with it, his knees trembling at the feel of her against him, her slick wetness inviting him lower.

  “Tor,” she murmured, desperately kissing him as she tugged at his hair.

  He knew what she needed.

  What he needed.

  He slipped himself down to her core and nudged inside, and she sighed, her teeth tugging on his lower lip.

  Tor grasped her hips beneath her dress, palming her backside, and snarled as he thrust home, burying himself in one powerful stroke. Her muffled cry drew another growl from him and he kissed her again, claiming her mouth as he claimed her body.

  She clung to him as he pounded into her, driving her against the stone wall. Her fingers clasped the back of his head, her body writhing against his, maddening and shocking him. She responded beautifully to his savageness, meeting his roughness as if the same raw need pounded through her, controlling her actions like a madness that was too powerful to stop.

  He couldn’t be gentle with her, no matter how fiercely he wanted to be and wanted to make love with her in the way that she deserved. This wasn’t making love. This was a claiming, and he couldn’t deny it.

  Seeing her touched by those men had broken something inside him, allowing a primal and dangerous side of him to emerge, one that demanded he erase their mark on her and stamp his name on her soul. He needed to make her his, even when he knew they didn’t belong together, that she had loved a man who betrayed her and was destined for better things.

  She was a star beyond his reach, but he couldn’t stop himself from wishing for her.

  He pressed his fingers into her backside and thrust deeper, long strokes to make her feel all of him and know he was inside her, and she belonged to him now. As he belonged to her.

  She moaned and clung to him, each flex and ripple of her body around his length tearing an answering groan from his throat. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling her sweetness as he plunged into her, taking her hard and fast, his pelvis slamming against her core with each deep thrust.

  Eve peppered his throat with kisses and licks, sending shivers bolting through him, zinging between his neck and his balls. They drew up, his cock aching as release boiled at its base. Eve would be his. She would know it. When he climaxed with her, she would know that she belonged to him, and he would never allow her to belong to another.

  No other male in this world would ever touch her like this.

  He growled and pumped harder, lost in claiming her and stamping his mark on her.

  Eve turned the tables and stamped her mark on him.

  The feel of her fangs slicing into his throat sent him shooting into the stratosphere and jerking deep into her. His release came upon him so swiftly that his head spun, every pulse of his cock that sent jets of seed into her core sending a cascade of hot tingly shivers through his bones. She sucked on the wound and he grunted as her body quivered around his, throbbing and clutching, drawing a second release from him that had him grabbing the wall for support.

  Eve moaned and wriggled, riding his still-hard cock, her pleasure blasting through him as she sucked down his blood, linking them for a brief insanely blissful moment.

  She drank for a full minute, the assault on his body almost too much for him to bear as he clung to the wall and her, struggling to retain consciousness. He had never been bitten during sex. He hadn’t been prepared for the mind-blowing orgasm it would bring.

  His fangs extended and he growled into her throat, the need to bite her almost overwhelming him. Eve tilted her head, still drinking from his throat, and moaned against him. She clutched the back of his head and pulled him down, forcing his mouth against the curve of her neck.

  He breathed hard, fighting the urge to mark her, his heart and mind tearing him in two different directions. He couldn’t mark her like this. He didn’t deserve her. She deserved a better man than he could ever be.

  What he felt she deserved and what she wanted seemed to be polar opposites though.

  She released his neck, roughly licked the puncture wounds, sending another hot shiver chasing over his flesh, and growled into his ear, a warning in it. A command that spoke to his soul and drove him into action. She needed him to bite her. She wanted it.

  Welcomed it.

  Tor clutched her to him and closed his eyes, humbled by her offer and the depth of her desire for him. He eased his fangs into her throat, as gently as possible so as not to hurt her, knowing this was a huge step for her.

  Her sweet blood burst on his tongue like a thousand fireworks and she cried into his throat, her body quivering around his again. She wrapped her mouth back around the wound on his neck and began drinking in time with him, forming an incredible connection between them. Tor lost himself in it, in all the memories that poured into him, visions of him through her eyes.

  She had called him beautiful before.

  She truly believed that about him.

  Her warmth and affection for him, her deepest thoughts and feelings, became his
to cherish, to know without a doubt. He thought she deserved better. Eve thought he was everything she desired and needed. Powerful. Intelligent. A hunter like her. Someone who understood her, protected her, and knew how to handle her. Someone she always wanted in her life.

  Someone she wanted to be with.

  Tor couldn’t take it. Overcome by the memories flowing into him, the beauty and light that was Eve, he removed his fangs from her throat and swept his tongue over the twin puncture marks. He held onto her, his hands shaking. Every inch of him trembling. His mind raced, hazy from her blood and his release, filling with too many thoughts and feelings for him to process.

  Could she love him?

  Eve finally released his throat and licked the wounds, her warm tongue sliding over his flesh making his softening cock twitch back to life.

  She moaned and drew back, and he felt her eyes on him, drilling into the side of his face.

  “Tor?” she whispered and he could only breathe hard in response, still struggling to pull himself back together.

  He was no longer sure who had claimed whom and stamped their mark on them.

  She pressed a kiss to his cheek and then his lips. He groaned at the taste of his blood on them and kissed her, pressing her back against the wall, keeping the pace slow this time, savouring the way she felt around him and in his arms.

  “I could stay like this forever. I want to stay like this forever… with you, forever. Don’t you?” She pulled back again and smiled at him, a brilliant one that hit him square in the chest.

  “I do,” he softly whispered, lost in her, drowning and unable to save himself. He would pledge himself to her forever right now if she asked it of him. He would hand his heart to her and expect nothing in return. “I want to be with you forever.”

  Pain shot through his chest and Eve cried out at the same time, her hand leaving his hair to clutch at her breasts. He held her closer, sensing her incredible fear as pain ripped her apart inside. The same agony that beat at him, filling every molecule of his body until he wasn’t sure he could take any more.