Master of Ecstasy

by Nina Bangs

  He traced a familiar path as he kissed the sensitive skin behind her ear, the side of her neck, then paused at the base of her throat. Her parade of goose bumps dutifully followed behind.

  "I can hear the flow of your life beneath your skin, imagine the taste of it on my tongue. 'Tis a seductive call when a woman excites me." He slid his hands over her shoulders, down her arms, then covered her breasts with his large palms. "And ye excite me verra much."

  Blythe heard his words, but all she could think about was the feel of his hands on her breasts. And when he replaced his hands with his mouth, circling each nipple with his tongue, then closing his lips over one and teasing it until it was a hard nub of concentrated sensation, she tangled her fingers in his long hair to anchor herself to earth.

  As he moved to her other nipple, she felt the slide of his fangs against her skin, the heat of his mouth on her nipple, and erotic sensations she'd never imagined she could feel from a man's mouth on her breasts. Darach was right. Without her sight to distract her, all sensation was focused on his touch.

  Blythe was greedy. She wanted to explore his body and learn what gave him pleasure. As Darach shifted his position to kneel between her spread legs, then kissed a path over her stomach, she ran her hands down the smooth plains of his back and gloried in the flow of muscle beneath her fingers.

  Darach moved lower still, and she held her breath—imagining, anticipating. And when his lips finally touched her inner thigh, she exhaled sharply. He moved higher, ever higher, and she released her hold on his hair. She needed something stronger to keep her from liftoff. Desperately she grasped the headboard behind her and hung on.

  He paused, his mouth a wish away from where she needed him to be, from where he'd better get to really fast or else she'd launch without him.

  "If your legends teach that only a woman's neck tempts a vampire, they are foolish." His breath was hot between her thighs, his voice thick with desire. "Life flows hot and tempting here also."

  Her femoral artery? As if that really mattered in the scheme of incredible sex? She felt the prick of his fangs, and the unexpected erotic jolt made her arch her body, lifting her hips in silent entreaty.

  "Ye need have no fear, though, for a greater temptation awaits here." He put his mouth on the spot that was far too ready for him.

  Blythe screamed. She hadn't meant to scream. She'd never screamed when a man touched her before. But this was too… "Are you doing something to enhance my senses?" Her words were forced out between frantic gasps for breath.

  "Your feelings are your own."

  He slid his tongue over the spot, and Blythe whimpered her appreciation. This was pitiful. She needed to release her grip on the headboard. She needed to torture his nipples with her lips and tongue. She needed to cup his sacs while doing sexy creative things with her mouth on them. She needed to nibble her way up the long, thick length of his erection, then slide her lips over the head. She needed to swirl her tongue around and around the head before taking him deep into her mouth, then—

  He slipped his tongue inside her at the same time he slid his hands beneath her buttocks and lifted her to meet his mouth.

  Blythe's deep, ragged groan surprised her. She didn't make those kinds of uncontrolled sounds during sex. A blissful sigh or tasteful "Yes!" were about it on her vocal-reaction scale.

  And as he began a sensual in-and-out rhythm with his tongue, Blythe felt the smooth slide of his fang against the spot guaranteed to make her—

  Scream, cry, and beg. She did all three. At once. Loudly.

  "I want you now, vampire. Don't make me say that again."

  She felt Darach lean back on his heels while still holding her buttocks firmly. His breathing was a harsh rasp. "I canna wait longer." He sounded apologetic.

  He was sorry he couldn't prolong her torture? He was kidding, right?

  Then she felt the nudge of his sex between her legs. She held her breath so she wouldn't miss a second of sensation—the slow, sensual slide into her, her own wet readiness, the feel of her body stretching to accommodate the thick head, her body's automatic clenching around the hard length of him, and above all else, the sense of him filling her inch by incredible inch.

  Blythe couldn't hold her breath or her need for one more second. Exhaling sharply, she released her white-knuckled grip on the headboard and reached for him.

  Darach must have come to the same conclusion, because with a hoarse cry, he thrust into her so deeply, so completely that it wrung an answering cry from her.

  Blythe pulled him down to her as he plunged again and again. She rose to meet him, a primal mating that swept everything before its blind, unstoppable surge to fulfillment.

  And as her orgasm took her, Blythe only recognized one truth. She had to anchor herself. Now. Bits and pieces of random thoughts drifted without meaning through her mind. So much pleasure. Bite down hard on something so you can stand it.

  No, that was wrong. You bit down on something for pain. This wasn't pain, but something just as intense. And she needed, she needed…

  The explosive pleasure that was a thousand times more than pleasure ripped a scream from her throat that was echoed by his cry seconds later. As he plunged deep into her for the final time, she sank her teeth into his shoulder and hung on, aware only of his skin's heat and the male taste of him.

  When the final shuddering spasm faded, Blythe realized he hadn't moved off of her…

  "Ye bit me. I think 'tis supposed to be the other way around."

  He couldn't have moved off of her, because her teeth were still locked on his shoulder. Regretfully she released him.

  "Ye may open your eyes."

  Blythe lifted her lids as he moved to her side and propped himself up on one elbow. "Ye would have made a vampire all would envy." His smile was easy and relaxed.

  I could get used to waking up to that smile. She blinked. Had she really thought that? Nope, wasn't her thought.

  She glanced away from the clear mark of her teeth in his shoulder. He'd done it all for her. The orgasm she'd had with Darach MacKenzie was the high-water mark for all future orgasms. He'd given her… complete joy.

  What had she given him? A set of teeth marks. "I want you to know I wasn't totally selfish. I did incredible sexual things to your body in my mind."

  "Ye must show me these 'incredible sexual things' verra soon." He pushed a strand of damp hair from her forehead.

  She felt boneless, and when she glanced at him, he looked pretty satisfied, too.

  "You know, we're sort of alike." Blythe turned on her side to face him. She smoothed her fingers over the teeth marks in his shoulder.

  "We are nothing alike." He seemed to think about that. "Except for a love of biting."

  "We each have our own demons." Could Darach MacKenzie exorcise them for her?

  "Everyone has demons."

  "We're each hardheaded." She frowned. That wasn't a great positive for compatibility.

  "Ye're hardheaded. I am always reasonable." His smile was all smug male superiority.

  "We make amazing love together."

  "Ye're right. We are much alike."

  He laughed. He really laughed. Never in all her life had hearing a man laugh brought tears to her eyes. It did now.

  "Ye're crying." He frowned as he wiped a tear from her cheek with the tip of his finger.

  "From joy. These are tears of happiness." Frantically she blinked them away. "Tears are a natural expression of emotion."

  His lips tipped up. "Ye still wish to see me shed tears."

  Blythe shrugged. It sounded silly saying the words. "I guess so. I mean, tears say it all. They're a physical expression of emotion. They don't lie."

  Silence stretched between them.

  "Darach, I think I'm ready to see you in your vampire form." Blythe hadn't planned to say that. The words just seemed to pop out. But once they were out, she realized they were true. She liked him enough now, felt comfortable enough with him, to not be horrified by a
ny physical changes. They'd just shared the greatest intimacy a man and woman could achieve, so if she wasn't ready now, she'd never be ready.

  "No." He didn't hesitate, and his tone said there would be no discussion.

  "You've seen me when I've just gotten up in the morning. That has to be way more scary." She offered him a blinding smile meant to turn his determination to mush.

  "No." He glanced at the arrow slit where pale light was visible. " 'Tis time for me to sleep, and I must protect my resting place." He offered her a smile meant to soften his hint that she get her bottom off his bed.

  "Ye're a warm, loving woman, Blythe, and tonight was wondrous, but I willna allow ye to see me in vampire form." He drew in a deep breath. "I dinna want to take any chance that ye might look on me and say 'yuck.' "

  "Yuck? You think I'd say yuck?" Outraged, she climbed off his bed. "I can't believe…"

  He was asleep. That quickly he'd closed his eyes and escaped her nagging in sleep.

  Blythe smiled. Not a nice smile. Here was a challenge she could sink her teeth into. Hmm. Maybe she'd sunk her teeth into enough tonight. But she would see him in his vampire form. Not out of morbid curiosity, but because she wanted to know and understand every facet of Darach MacKenzie.

  Why did she want to know? That was a very scary question.

  * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  « ^ »

  "You know, Mede, you're one lucky laird that I was here to fix things for you." Sparkle seemed pretty pumped as she leaped onto the table in the great hall. "Can I hook people up, or what?"

  "Yeah, with the wrong people." He shouldn't have brought her here. He'd thought she could help him, but he'd forgotten the scary twists her reasoning could take. "This is your revenge, isn't it? You think I used you." Ganymede slumped on the bench with his elbows propped on the table.

  "Hey, friends are for using, so what's the big deal?" She paused to scratch a sudden itch behind one ear. "I hope that's not a flea. Look and see if it's a flea. Did you bring flea powder?"

  Resignedly Ganymede parted the hair behind her ear. He peered closely. "Yep, it's a flea." He returned his elbows to the table.

  Sparkle widened her eyes, then wailed. "Get it off! I hate bugs. Get it off now, now, now!" Frantically she shoved her head against Ganymede's hand. "Get it off fast, or I'll change into human form and lay some pain on your stomach that the pink stuff won't fix."

  Ganymede's glum expression lightened for a moment. "No, you won't, because it takes too much effort to change." He parted her hair again and watched as the flea leaped from Sparkle onto the floor. Smart flea. "It jumped onto the floor."

  With a small cat huff, she sat down and wrapped her tail around herself. "What I put up with for you. And what makes you think I matched up the wrong people?" She blinked her big orange eyes at him.

  She didn't get it. "Look, I brought six paying customers here. Three men, three women. Let's do the math. If each man hooks up with one of the women, the Cosmic Time Travel Agency has fulfilled its obligation and no one asks for a refund." Just thinking about the situation he had on his hands steamed him. "Now let's look at how you've screwed everything up."

  She glared at him. "I'm all ears."

  "Two of the men are in love with each other, and one of the women is getting it on with a vampire. Another of the women can't find a man because they're all taken, so she's resorting to talking to the servants. Do you think she'll want a refund? I think yes. The only pairing that worked out the way I wanted is that Textron and the underwear lady."

  "Hah!" Sparkle managed to twist her cat face into a scornful expression. "The only reason your underwear lady is doing the deed with Textron is so that she can sell her products to his company. She's offering a discount along with a free Ecstasy logo on all the briefs she sells to Textron. They're going to have you deliver the order on your next time-travel tour. That's so romantic. Not."

  "You listened in on their private conversations?"

  "Well, yeah." She offered him a so-what glance.

  "I'm okay with that. But what about the vampire? If he sucks sweet little Blythe dry, the agency is going to take a big hit." Ganymede always had his eye on profit margins. He didn't need his insurance rates raised because of something stupid like one of his customers getting offed by a vampire.

  "I have a feeling something good could come of that relationship." She frowned. "Of course, that's bad, because good things happening are bad for my image. Was that clear?"

  Nothing was ever clear with Sparkle. "You're dead wrong, babe. It'll never happen."

  "Wanna bet?" She had that sly look again.

  "Sure." He couldn't lose. "So what do I get when I win?"

  "You get me in my human form for a whole month of creative sex." She tipped her head to study him. "Make sure you're in your golden-god form."

  "Even though there's no chance you'll win, what did you have in mind?" Ganymede started to smile. He'd pretty much figured out what she'd say.

  "A month of creative sex with you in your golden-god form." Her orange eyes glittered with laughter. "I believe in win-win situations."

  His smile faded. "By the way, what happened to my ghosts? Haven't seen them around. I'm not paying them to lie down on the job."

  "Guess you won't be paying them, then, because all they've been doing is lying down on the job." Her gaze swept the table. Probably searching for more fleas. "Last night I found them in the vegetable bin. They said all of those different-shaped veggies opened up lots of new erotic possibilities." She lifted her gaze to his and yawned delicately. "You have to admire anyone with that much stamina and drive to excel."

  He was getting a headache. Good thing it wasn't a stomachache, because he was just about out of the pink stuff. "We still have to get rid of the vampire."

  "Why? He saved our butts the other night, and Blythe would probably take us apart if we tried to hurt him." Sparkle glanced down at her stomach. "Does my stomach look flatter? I've been cutting out dessert."

  "Your stomach looks great." Maybe the blood-sucker wasn't such a bad guy after all. Sparkle was right. Darach had been pretty decent about helping to get rid of that mob, even though Ganymede had done most of the tough stuff.

  Sparkle stood and prepared to leap from the table, then stopped. "That flea's down there. Do something about it."

  Ganymede rubbed his forehead. The headache was getting worse. "I'll call in some of the servants to find it." If he was lucky, they'd never find the flea, and Sparkle would be trapped on that table until it was time to leave.

  "There's something wrong with those women you hired, Mede." She sat down again, evidently ready to outwait the flea.

  "Right." He walked over and rang the bell that would summon the servants. "They're all beautiful women. Maybe that's what's wrong with them."

  For once, she didn't get mad when he hinted that she was jealous. She narrowed her clever cat eyes on the women who hurried into the hall. "No, there's really something wrong with them. I sense everything sexual in humans, and there's something dark and twisted in all of them that I can't quite get a handle on. Think I'll do a little investigating."

  "Knock yourself out, babe." He needed to lie down in a dark, quiet room.

  Blythe sat in the chair watching Darach sleep. He'd be awake soon and her day would officially begin. Funny how within such a short time she'd become a nocturnal creature.

  She'd slept until early afternoon, then gone down to the great hall only to be waylaid by Textron. He'd tried to squeeze information from her about her progress with Darach, but she'd kept her mouth shut. At any point she could've cut him off by playing the recording that proved she'd succeeded. She hadn't.

  Then the jerk had made a few sly innuendoes about her relationship with Darach. She could've stopped that dead by playing the recording of his little session with Sandy. She hadn't.

  Why? She wasn't quite sure yet, but something important seemed to be shifting in her life. For some reason, Textron had
n't been worth bothering with today. Which was pretty crazy, because anything pertaining to her job always took precedence.

  Right now? The only important thing on her horizon was the man sleeping in this room. She smiled. He thought he'd escaped their argument this morning. Wrong. She was wound up and ready to rumble.

  Lazily he rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. He'd kicked off his covers during the day, and she'd spent some quality time mentally dividing his body into sensual zones. Then she'd decided what kinds of erotic stimulation would be most effective in each zone. Hey, she was organized in all things.

  "Did ye enjoy your day?" His voice was still warm and husky from sleep.

  Not as much as I'll enjoy my night. "It was okay. I had my daily argument with Textron, ate something wild and strange for dinner, and chased Clara, the vampire-slayer-in-training, away from our door twice.

  Oh, and as far as I can see, Ganymede isn't hatching any plots against you." Blythe smiled. "I think he's too worried about what Sparkle will do next." Her smile faded. She really didn't want to tell him her next bit of news, but he'd find out anyway. "Three more people from the area were murdered last night."

  He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he reopened them she recognized his resolve. "I must destroy the vampires tonight." Sitting up, he absently rubbed his palm across his incredible chest. " 'Twould help if ye'd find out where the killings took place while I bathe and dress."

  Blythe didn't want to leave the room while he bathed and dressed. She wanted to see and experience it all, maybe even gain some tactile insights. Was this what an obsession felt like? She was beginning to wonder.

  She quickly scanned his emotions. Relieved, she found him open to her. Resignation. Regret. No, she supposed this wasn't a good time to argue with him about her desire to see his vampire form. He had enough to worry about.

  Hurrying down to the great hall, she caught Ganymede on his way back to his room. "I'm sort of worried about all these killings in the area. How close to us were the three last night?" Did she sound casual enough?