“That’s another way of asking if I’m available.”
“It might be, but now I’m getting the feeling you don’t want to answer the question.”
“I don’t.” He kept his eyes on the road and didn’t look at her. “I told you about the woman who took me in when I was on the run?”
“The bitch who turned you in? Yes, you mentioned that.”
He grinned at her. “Yep, that bitch.” He took a deep breath. “I was supposed to marry her.”
Anna gasped. “You were supposed to what? She did that to her own fiancé?”
“I can’t say I forgive her, but I will say we were getting married for political reasons and not for love.”
“Even so, could you imagine if you had married someone who was capable of betraying you like that? How uncomfortable that would have been for you?”
“We probably wouldn’t live together anyway.”
Anna frowned. “If you’re trying to defend the idea of marrying for politics, you should stop because nothing you’re saying is helping.” He got a small grin on his face but remained quiet, so she decided to see whether his chatty mood would continue. “Do all vampires marry for politics?”
“No. Most vampire marriages are because of deep, soulful companionship. Just the powerful ones will unite for politics. Not unlike humans, by the way,” he added.
“Still grosses me out.”
“I can understand you not liking it, but it ‘grosses you out’?” he asked.
“Well, imagine spending the rest of your life, which is a long life, with someone capable of turning you over to men who mean to kill you.”
“Annabelle, I think you’re forgetting something.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m a formidable opponent. If I ever had married her, she would have to be on the lookout as well.”
“That just means both of you would be miserable and unhappy. Two powerful miserable and unhappy supernatural beings are not healthy for any species.”
Nicolas nodded. “I can see a logic in that.”
Anna smiled. “I’m a very logical person.”
“I noticed.”
Once again, Anna was unsure whether he was happy about that or not.
“What about you?” asked Nicolas. “Are there any college boys pining after you?”
Anna tried not to laugh. “I’m not very nice to college boys,” she said. “I’m either their teacher and they’re too focused on grades, or they’re my colleagues who have no time to socialize because we’re all trying to work and write our dissertations.”
“You can always make time for the opposite sex if that’s what you want, especially an attractive, smart woman like yourself.”
Anna raised a brow. “Flattery? I think you’re more scary when you’re being nice. Now I have to figure out what you want so badly that you’ll hold your dark side at bay.”
Nicolas kept his eyes on the road. “It’s my dark side that wants you so much that it’s willing to play nice.”
She averted her eyes to look out the window. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Nicolas obliged her by changing the subject. “Have you given any thought to what you would like to ask Aleksander?”
“Only for the past fifteen years. Why?”
“You might not have much time. You’ll have to have your most important questions at the tip of your tongue,” he said.
Anna nibbled on her lower lip while she thought. “Well, I need to know if my father and Evie are still alive, first and foremost. If they are alive, I would need to know how to find them.” Well, find Evie. She didn’t know what she’d do if she found out Charles was alive.
She continued, “If they are dead, then I’ll try to find out why. What’s your plan on getting me a chance to ask these questions?”
“We don’t have a plan quite yet,” he said.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not that bad. I haven’t been to this place in sixty years. Before we set anything in stone, I’ll need to see what security measures are in place and who is in charge of enforcing them. I still know the layout like the back of my hand, and I have you up my sleeve, so we have some advantages,” he said.
“How am I an advantage?”
“You’re human, which is one surprise they won’t see coming. You’re also helping me, and no one would expect me to work with a partner.”
“No one would expect you to work with a partner? I can see that.” Anna smirked.
They drove past a billboard advertising a popular hotel chain. She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t that close to dawn, but it was getting there. “Where are we?” They had passed a larger city recently, but she hadn’t looked to see which one it had been.
“We are in the middle of Minnesota,” he answered.
“Minnesota? I’ve never been there before,” she said.
“Now you have. It’s nice, if you have time to appreciate it.”
Anna looked out the window, trying to get a feel for the state, but it was too dark to fully appreciate anything. “I’ll have to come back sometime,” she said wistfully to the window. “Are we stopping soon?”
Nicolas nodded. “It won’t be too long now.”
Only a little while later, they walked towards the entrance of a chain hotel together. She refused to let him go alone, considering the last time she had, he’d gotten a room with only one bed.
Right outside the doors to the lobby, Nicolas stopped and turned to Anna. “We need to discuss the room situation,” he said in a serious tone.
Anna took a breath. She’d been wondering about that too. “Can’t we get two rooms this time?”
Nicolas looked her directly in the eye. “We could get two rooms.” He took a step closer to her, and she resisted the urge to take a step back. “Or, if you would like, we could share a room.” The look he gave her left little doubt of exactly what he planned to do with her if they shared a room.
Anna did take a step back then. She’d avoided this exact question ever since they both boarded that bus together earlier that night. “How can I share a room with you after knowing what you did yesterday?”
She could see him tense up at the question, but he didn’t say anything. One of his hands came up to rest on her neck, and he tilted her face up to look at him. His mouth moved toward her, and she was so sure he was about to kiss her that she closed her eyes and waited for the electric shock that always seemed to flow through her when they kissed.
It never came. His hand left her, and he walked into the lobby of the hotel without saying anything.
Anna took a minute to collect her breath and thoughts. How could he turn her senseless in a matter of seconds? It never ceased to amaze her.
She walked into the hotel, and he was talking with the man behind the counter. The blank stare on the man’s face told Anna he was under Nicolas’s control.
She heard Nicolas’s voice command, “We’ll need two rooms next—”
“One room,” Anna interrupted. “One room and one bed.”
Nicolas’s head sharply turned in her direction. “One room?”
Anna just nodded and walked out of the lobby to grab her bag before she could change her mind.
When she walked back in, Nicolas leaned by the elevator, waiting for her. She avoided looking at him, and he was quiet as he pushed the button for the third floor. Anna’s heart beat frantically in her chest. She bet it beat so hard Nicolas could hear it. How embarrassing.
When the doors opened, Anna rushed out, but stopped when she realized she didn’t know what their room number was.
Nicolas walked past her, and she followed him down the hall. He stopped at a door and slipped the small piece of plastic that was the room key into the lock.
When the door opened, Nicolas held it open for Anna. She walked past him and set her duffel at the end of the room next to the small table and chairs by the window.
She would have to talk to Nicolas. What could
she say to him? What did she say to a man she fully intended to have sex with shortly? Anna wasn’t experienced in pre-sex conversation. She turned around and Nicolas was right in front of her. She gasped in shock at his nearness, and his mouth was on hers.
She didn’t fight it. This was exactly what she wanted. Her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. His hands slipped under her jacket and rubbed up and down her back. She almost purred at the contact. It felt so good, but she wanted more.
His tongue stroked in her mouth, and she opened for him. When she tentatively stroked his lips with her tongue, she was surprised at the feel of fangs against her. When she kissed him again, she took a second to test the feel of his fangs against her, and he must have liked it because a deep moan vibrated from his chest.
He maneuvered her arms away from his neck and pulled her jacket off in one quick motion. Now that they were separated, Anna got a good look at him. His large black eyes were completely focused on her, and his fangs peeked from under his upper lip.
A week ago, the sight would have terrified her. Now it excited her. She caused this. He wanted her that much. She’d never felt needed, but with the way Nicolas looked at her, she could almost believe that he needed her.
Once her jacket was on the floor, Nicolas grabbed the hemline of her shirt and pulled it up. Anna obligingly lifted her arms to help him undress her. Before her shirt could hit the ground, his hands found her breasts. She moaned at the new and unfamiliar pressure.
His head lowered to her flesh, and she felt the warm slide of his tongue slip under the cup of her bra. Her hands went up to his hair and pulled him closer. One of his hands pushed the cups up until her bare breasts were free.
His mouth went to one of her nipples and gently teased the sensitive tip between his teeth. The sharp tips teased her soft skin. She had to hold back a gasp as a bolt of arousal shot through her.
But instead of lingering at her breasts, he came back up and kissed her again. But she didn’t just stand there and take it this time. Now she was aggressive with what she wanted. She bit his bottom lip and gently pulled. A soft growl came from his throat. Her fingers twisted in his shirt and pulled it up and over his head.
When he was bared from the waist up, she pushed away so she could have a few moments to admire the view.
His chest was beautiful. He wasn’t bodybuilder big, but his muscles were well defined, and she wanted to trace every single ridge and crevice with her fingers…and her tongue. “You shouldn’t be allowed to wear a shirt,” she whispered while she stared in awe at him.
He gave a deep chuckle. His hands went to her waist and lifted her off the ground. She quickly grasped onto his shoulders in alarm. He walked a few steps and lightly tossed her onto the bed. After a small bounce, she came to rest in the middle of the bed.
He leaned forward and slowly began to crawl up her body. Her eyes were glued to him, and her heart beat in anticipation of what he would do to her next.
One of his hands slid up her jean-clad leg. He paused for a second at the juncture of her thighs and took a quick inhale. As he took a deep breath in, his eyes looked up and met her own.
Her breath caught at the pure eroticism of it.
He then continued his slow journey up her body. His tongue shot out around her belly button, and he gently nipped at the soft skin of her stomach. Her hips instinctively lifted, leaving no doubt to what she truly desired him to do to her.
When he finally reached her breasts, he took his time to explore them with his mouth. He took turns with each until Anna thought she would lose her mind.
The pressure in her core kept building, and she continuously squirmed against him. He had one thigh between hers, and she rubbed herself against it, frantically trying to get some relief.
When she thought she was about to come, he lifted his head. “If men knew breasts like this existed, there would be no such thing as bras.”
Anna wanted to laugh, but she was too far gone for jokes. Instead, she reached out to him and pulled his head to hers. The kiss they shared was wild and frantic. Their tongues played with each other, and their teeth nipped.
His hands reached down to her jeans and undid the top button. She pushed the offensive garment down her hips, along with her panties, as quick as possible. As he bent down to pull the material completely free from her, which took a bit of work because he also had to take off her shoes, she pulled her bra completely off.
When she was completely naked, Nicolas looked her over. She felt self-conscious but was too turned on to care. She looked him in the eye. “Take your pants off.” A rush of power filled her as he did what she ordered.
After he quickly stripped, he came back down on top of her. His cock pushed between her spread thighs, just brushing her entrance, as his mouth pushed down on hers.
She thrust her hips up, trying to get him inside her, but he held himself back, reaching down to grasp her hips and hold her immobile beneath him. Refusing to give up her desperate quest to get his cock as deep inside her as possible, she squirmed against him. Nicolas brushed a palm over her mound and exhilaration filled her as he stroked her core. When he put a finger inside her to test her, she moaned in frustration, and he responded by adding another finger. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes as these new sensations washed over her.
Trying to speak a language he would understand, she lifted her mouth to his neck and took a forceful nip with her teeth.
His hips impulsively thrust forward against her leg, and he growled against her. “You’re so tight. We have to go slow.”
Unable to form a logical argument as to why they should be going as fast as possible, she bit him again. This time her teeth held on and her mouth sucked at the soft skin of his neck.
He let out a grunt, and in a flash, his fingers once again held her hips steady as he slid into her in one long thrust. The pain shocked Anna out of whatever spell she’d been under. She’d known the first time was supposed to hurt, but in her frenzy she’d forgotten everything but the feel of Nicolas.
Her hands went to his shoulders and pushed. “You have to get off.”
“Hold on,” he said in a strained voice. His hands were still at her waist, and his fingers squeezed into her skin. His face was buried in her throat, and she could feel panting breaths against her neck.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it to hurt like this.”
“Shh,” he whispered into her throat. “It’s okay.” His breath tickled her skin, but his tongue shot out and soothed the spot.
She jerked at the contact. “What are you doing?”
His head lowered to one of her breasts, and he spoke against her. “I’m making the pain go away.” With that, he gave his full attention to the mounds in front of him. Her hands moved from his shoulders to his hair. She intended to push him away, but as his tongue circled a nipple in the same way that had driven her crazy just a few minutes ago, she started to forget why she wanted him off her.
He continued this teasing until the sensation of him inside her began to change. Where there used to be pain, there was now a pressure that begged to be released. “Nicolas,” she moaned. She moved her hips to take him a bit deeper.
He lifted his head up and his black eyes stared down at her. “Do you want me?” Incapable of coherent speech, she just nodded. “You want all of me?” he asked with a small flex of his hips. The friction of his cock against her inner walls caused her eyes to close as a moan escaped her throat. He must have taken that as a yes, because his hips began to thrust against her.
He went slow at first as she got used to his size inside of her tight sheath. Soon she wrapped her legs around his waist and encouraged him to move faster.
The sights in the room changed to a blur of color swirling over them. She gripped him tighter as he rode her even harder, and she met him stroke for stroke.
Strange feelings shot through her and demanded even more. “More,” she breathlessly said. “All of it.”
The room faded away, and it was just her and him for those few seconds. His hips moved impossibly faster and he drank from her neck. He lifted up his head and let out a roar as he pumped the last few times.
Anna stared, transfixed, at the bulging cords of his neck as his whole body tensed.
When his body started to relax, he didn’t move off her. Their chests pushed up against each other as they both tried to catch their breath.
He laid his head next to where he’d just bitten her and gently licked her wounds. She expected a sharp pain to come from the treatment, but it actually felt rather soothing.
“Why did you bite me?” She would work up outrage later. Right now she was too boneless and relaxed to be upset.
“You asked me to,” he said against her skin.
“I never asked you to bite me.” Come to think of it, she’d been pretty lost in the heat of the moment. Had she asked him to bite her?
“Well, let me point out that you bit me first.” She opened her mouth to defend herself, but he interrupted by saying, “And you did ask me. You asked for all of me, remember?”
“All of you!” she quietly exclaimed. “I meant all of,” she looked down at where their bodies were still joined, “that.”
He let out a soft laugh. “Oh. I must’ve misunderstood, but in my defense, I was already pretty far inside when you asked.”
She couldn’t help but laugh with him. “You drank my blood because of a misunderstanding? That’s so wrong.”
“Speaking of misunderstanding, I’m sorry about the pain. I didn’t realize...”
“That I was a virgin?” she finished for him.
“Yes, that,” he said. “Care to explain how that is?”
She let out a sigh. “Not really.”
He wouldn’t let it go that easily. “Were you saving yourself for marriage?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, I wasn’t saving myself for marriage. Besides my crazy back, the reason I have been without sex for the past twenty-eight years was that I was saving myself for myself.”
Finding Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 1) Page 15