“Can I keep this?” Dan asked, sparing a quick glance at his kidnapper. Enough to see the man’s face light up at the question.
“Of course! That’s why I brought it to you. I apologize for not thinking of it sooner. It was completely thoughtless on my part.”
Jesus, this guy was pathetic. “Yeah, right. Okay. Can I have my dinner now?”
“Oh no, your steak! It must be cold. Should I microwave it or something?”
He wanted to zap steak? What a moron. But all he said was, “No, that’s okay. It’ll be fine.”
“You’re sure, because—”
“I said it’ll be fine.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll just get it from the kitchen then. Would you like a glass of wine?”
“Sure,” Daniel said, snapping a quick picture as his captor turned away to bring in the food, covering the small sound it made with his words. “That’d be nice.”
By the time his captor returned, the camera was lying on the bed. He noticed and frowned. “You want to be careful with that. Make sure you move it before the lights go off. You don’t want to sit on it or anything.”
“Yeah, about that. How about you leave the lights on so I can take some shots. Artsy stuff, you know,” he added with an inflection meant to flatter the freakazoid into thinking he and Dan shared an understanding of true art.
The nut job’s face lit up like Christmas. “That would be splendid!” He frowned as if having second thoughts, but said, “I suppose it can’t hurt to leave the light on for one day. But no more than that,” he scolded, as if addressing a child.
“Great,” Dan said, fighting the urge to tell this creep what he really thought.
“You’re welcome,” the nut job said primly, then settled down to watch Dan eat as he did every night. “Now, what shall we talk about tonight?”
Daniel didn’t answer. He found that the freak didn’t really want conversation. He mostly wanted someone to listen to his ramblings, and Dan was more interested in eating. His captor only brought food once a day, and Dan had discovered early on that the man’s mood was unpredictable. Some nights he lingered for hours, yammering about his life, his job, whatever tedious tidbits he could resurrect from his clearly deranged mind. Other nights, he grew impatient after only a few minutes, leaving Daniel with a half-finished meal and still hungry.
It seemed likely that tonight would be a long one, given the man’s excitement over the camera. But Daniel wasn’t taking any chances. He ate the cold steak, the tepid baked potato, even the broccoli, which he generally detested, because one of these nights, this asshole was going to slip up, and Dan would be ready.
Chapter Seventeen
Twin Cities, Minnesota
Lucas went directly from his bed to another hot shower when he woke after sunset. The day had been rugged, even worse than he’d expected. To call it sleep would be a gross misstatement. He’d been in excruciating pain for much of it, pain that had made the agony of being crushed by tons of debris pale in comparison. He’d woken covered in bloody sweat. The sheets had been soaked red, torn to shreds from his daytime thrashing. His body still ached from the memory of it, while at least a part of his mind kept waiting for it to begin again, not quite trusting that it was over. No human could have survived such torture and remained sane. Even Lucas had never experienced anything like it.
He wrapped a towel around his waist and crossed to the steam-fogged mirror, rubbing a spot clear. His beard was a dark shadow along his jaw. He needed to shave. On the other hand, he had a beautiful woman waiting for him. The choice was easy.
He dropped the towel as he headed out of the bathroom, aiming for his bedroom closet. The sound of a sucked in breath had him turning toward the door.
“Kathryn,” he said, unsurprised. He’d known she was in the penthouse. She wouldn’t have been allowed into the elevator, much less out of it, without his permission. The first thing Lucas had done on waking was call Nick, to assure him he had survived the day, and to tell him to admit Kathryn to the penthouse when she showed up. She’d arrived while he was still in the shower—he’d taken enough of her blood to sense her presence—and he’d been glad he’d had the foresight to close the door to the other bedroom where he’d spent the day. He didn’t want Kathryn to witness the evidence of his agonizing recovery.
He took in the welcome sight of her curves in a pair of faded jeans that clung and made him wish she’d turn around, so he could see the perfection of her denim-covered ass. Her feet were bare, her toenails polished in bright red. Like the underwear, a sexy side of his Kathryn that she hid from the world. But not from him. And speaking of underwear, or lack thereof, she was braless beneath a dark blue FBI T-shirt.
His perusal reached her face and found her eyes traveling up his body in turn, lingering, he was pleased to see, on his growing erection.
Lucas grinned. “Up here, a cuisle,” he drawled, tapping his chin.
Kathryn blushed right on schedule, but she met his gaze defiantly. “You appear remarkably healthy for a man who was crushed under a building less than twenty-four hours ago.”
“Ah, Katie mine,” he crooned, crossing over to her and tilting her stubborn chin up with a finger. “I keep telling you, I’m not a man. I’m a vampire.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. Their lips met with a spark of recognition, an almost electrical shock of instant desire. Kathryn’s mouth opened beneath his, and he swept his tongue past her soft lips in a lazy exploration that very quickly turned into something demanding and insistent. Lucas changed the angle of his kiss so he could go deeper, cupping the nape of her neck in a possessive grip, holding her in place as his other hand dropped to her lower back and tucked her up against his naked body. Kathryn moaned into his mouth, her strong hands sliding from his waist to his back, digging into his newly healed muscles as she demanded in turn. This heat between them was never one-way, it was two combustible elements coming together and creating a fire neither one could control.
Lucas stepped back to grab the edges of her T-shirt and pull it over her head, dropping it to the floor as his fingers swept up her bare back and around to frame her beautiful breasts. They were heavy in his hands as he admired them, her dark pink nipples swollen and erect, standing out against large, pale areolas. He rubbed his thumbs over her nipples, smiling in appreciation as they hardened into tight peaks.
Kathryn grabbed his wrists and rubbed her breasts against his hands like a sweet kitten begging to be petted. She rose up on her toes and brought her mouth to his in a hard, hungry kiss, her tongue pushing against his, fighting for control. He bit her tongue teasingly, enough to establish dominance without breaking the skin, opening his bite almost immediately. But there was nothing teasing about her response as her blunt teeth sank hard into his lower lip, drawing blood. Kathryn swept her tongue over the small injury in a sensuous caress, licking away the few drops of blood. Lucas’s body hardened as her throat moved in a swallow, taking him into her in a whole new way.
“Careful,” he growled, “I bite back.” He lifted her off her feet, his arms around her back, holding her in a tight embrace as he plundered her mouth, crushing her lips beneath his, flattening her naked breasts against his chest, her skin soft as satin, her nipples like twin pearls.
“Lucas,” she whispered, the sound full of desire, but touched with fear, as his blood hit her system, and she experienced for the first time what it really meant to have a vampire lover.
“What do you want, a cuisle?”
“You,” she said breathlessly. “Can you . . . are you well enough . . .”
Lucas laughed and swept his arm under her legs, lifting her off her feet and carrying her over to the bed. He dropped Kathryn onto the mattress, then reached for the zipper to her denims, pulling it down and stripping her naked in a single move. Holding her gaze, he dropped to one knee between her legs and ran his hands up her calves to her knees. He bent her legs and pushed them wide, baring her sex to his hungry stare. He licked his lips slowly, the
n looked up again and met her eyes.
“Mine, Katie. Don’t forget that.”
“Lucas, I—”
He never heard whatever protest she’d been about to make, only the sound of her indrawn breath as he dropped to the bed between her thighs and licked, running his tongue along her slit, opening her outer lips to reveal her swollen pussy, wet and flushed with desire. He licked again, tasting her, swirling his tongue over the sensitive nub of her clit. He narrowed his eyes with lust at the sight of that concentrated bundle of nerves standing up proudly from beneath its hood, hard and red as a cherry, almost quivering with excitement. He pressed his tongue over its eager hardness, and Kathryn moaned, lifting herself against his mouth.
Lucas grabbed hold of her hips with a growl, letting her know that he was the one in control. At least for now. Sex with Kathryn was a delicious battle for dominance, and one he didn’t mind losing on occasion. But not tonight, and not in this moment.
He began sucking hard on her sensitive nub, drawing it up further from its protective sheathing as Kathryn bucked beneath him. When the hard, little cherry was swollen to twice its size, when Kathryn’s fingers were gripping his hair so hard it hurt, he bit down and tasted the sweetest blood of all. Kathryn screamed as the chemicals in his bite hit the very nerve center of her pussy. Her back arched as an orgasm swept over her, her muscles spasming beneath his fingers, her sex clenching against his mouth. She was crying, tears running down her cheeks with an overload of sensation, murmuring his name over and over again, like a plea for something.
No, not something, Lucas thought to himself. He knew what she wanted. What she needed. What they both needed. He lifted his mouth from the silky place between her thighs and prowled up her body, licking and kissing, lingering to fill his mouth with her swollen nipples, to lick the sweat from between her breasts, gliding higher until the hard length of his cock rested between her legs, against the volcanic heat of her core.
“Kathryn,” he growled. He waited until her eyes opened, blurry with desire as she gazed up at him. And then he plunged his cock deep into her body, groaning as her hot, wet channel closed around him, still vibrating from her orgasm as she welcomed him inside. He pushed into her until he was fully sheathed, until his balls slapped against her perfect ass, and her legs came up and curved over his back.
She wrapped her arms around him, her short nails digging into his back, her eyes closed as the walls of her vagina pulsed and shivered. Lucas leaned down and kissed her eyelids one at a time. She opened her eyes and smiled up at him with such naked emotion that his breath caught in his chest. And then, as if realizing what she’d done, or fearing what she’d given away, she closed her eyes again and began lifting her hips in the timeless mating rhythm, undulating beneath him, so her breasts brushed against his chest as her pussy slid up and down his cock.
Lucas let her control the rhythm for a few minutes, enjoying the silk and cream glide of her body, the graze of her hard nipples over his chest. He leaned down, tucking his face against her neck and inhaling deeply, taking in the scent of her skin, her sweat, and the delicious heat of her blood so close to the surface.
Kathryn’s heart was a drumbeat against his chest as her movements sped up, as her hips thrust frantically. Lucas laid a lingering kiss on the velvet softness of her neck, smiling as Kathryn shivered in anticipation. She was panting now, her fingers gripping the back of his neck, her head turned to one side as if offering herself to his bite.
He pressed his lips along the plump swell of her jugular until he found the perfect spot, and then he sucked hard, pulling her vein into his mouth and releasing it. Kathryn moaned and dropped one hand to his ass, fucking him frantically to relieve the beginning of a climax he could feel rippling along his cock.
He lifted his mouth and blew softly on her wet skin. She trembled. Without warning, he bit into her vein, closing his eyes in ecstasy as the warm honey of her blood rolled down his throat, causing his heart to hammer against his ribcage, his nerves to thrum with excitement as heat filled every inch of his body.
Kathryn froze beneath him, as if caught in a moment of time, and then she screamed as every muscle in her body seemed to spasm at once, her legs scissoring over his hips, her arms tightening across his back as her nails dug in, scoring his back until he could feel the warm flow of his own blood. His cock grew impossibly hard as her inner muscles convulsed around him, rippling and stroking his shaft.
Lucas groaned, his fangs still buried in Kathryn’s neck, her blood still filling his mouth. Lifting his head, he swallowed, reveling in the unique taste of her as his hips resumed pumping, slamming his cock deep between Kathryn’s legs as she writhed around him. Her breath was coming in short, puffing gasps, and she was giving little wordless cries of pleasure that made his dick twitch and his balls tighten, made his climax build to an unbearable weight before it finally rushed down his shaft, a fiery flood of release that splashed against Kathryn’s womb, branding her with his heat, marking her as his.
Lucas collapsed against Kathryn’s overheated body, his face still buried in the crook of her neck. Lifting his head slightly, he licked away the few drops of blood from the neat puncture wounds, sealing them with the chemical in his saliva. In a few hours, there would be no visible trace of his bite, although Kathryn’s body would remember far longer than that. He grinned at the thought.
“What are you grinning about?”
He shifted his gaze and found her watching him. “There are so many things that I don’t know where to begin.”
“You’re so full of shit,” she responded lazily. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Really? I’m all ears.”
Kathryn flexed her inner muscles, caressing his cock, which was still semi-hard and buried inside her. “If you were all ears, boyo, we wouldn’t be here at all.”
Lucas laughed. “Point taken. But you’re avoiding the question. What was I thinking?”
“You were being all me Tarzan, her Jane. Guys always get that smug look when they make a woman come, like no one’s ever done it before.”
She slapped his ass playfully, but Lucas felt a sudden surge of rage that made him want to fuck her so senseless she wouldn’t ever even think about another man. His eyes must have gone gold, because Kathryn was giving him a wary look.
“Lucas?”
“What?” he growled, knowing he was overreacting and somewhat shocked at his own anger. Of course she’d had other lovers before him. God knew he’d had more than his share. It was probably all the blood he’d consumed the night before. It had given the symbiote enough power to heal him, but it also brought every other vampire characteristic to fore, including a vicious possessiveness about this particular woman.
“Everything okay?” Kathryn questioned.
He brought his power under control with an act of will and focused on the woman beneath him. “Of course,” he lied, and lowered his head to kiss her before rolling off to one side. “I was just thinking about Klemens.”
“That’s the vampire who sent Alex to kill you?” she asked cautiously.
“Yes. Though your presence must have been a nasty surprise. Not even Klemens is foolish enough to try to murder an FBI agent.”
Kathryn shrugged and sat up, tossing her long hair behind her. Lucas reached out to tangle his fingers in the silky strands, tempted to use it to pull her back down beside him, or more specifically, beneath him, so he could demonstrate his superiority to any other lover she might have, past or future.
A phone rang in the other room. Lucas frowned at the unfamiliar tone, but Kathryn patted his shoulder and said, “Nick gave me a new cell phone for you. That’s probably it.”
Lucas got up and stalked from the room, still pissed at both himself and Kathryn. He found the phone on the table near the door. It was just like his old one and no doubt already contained all of the information his old one did, too.
“Nick,” he answered. “What’s up?”
“Klemens, my lord. We k
now where he is, and he’ll be there all night.”
“Excellent. How much time do you need?”
“We’re ready, and the plane is waiting.”
“Even better. Give me ten minutes.”
Lucas disconnected and strode back into the bedroom, going straight for the shower once more.
“Hey!” Kathryn jumped out of bed and hurried after him. “What’s going on?”
Lucas closed the shower door and stepped under the hot spray without answering. Kathryn was not so easily deterred, however. The door opened, and she joined him, pumping a handful of his shower gel and washing herself off quickly as she spoke.
“Where are we going?”
“We are not going anywhere. I’m going to pay Klemens a visit.”
“Fuck that. He has my brother.”
“I don’t think—”
“Alex had Daniel, and now Alex is dead. And according to you, he was acting under orders from this Klemens asshole, which means Klemens is probably holding Daniel. I’m going with you.”
“One . . . no, you’re not. This is vampire business, and it’s going to be ugly. And two . . . I don’t think Alex ever had your brother, hence, Klemens doesn’t either.”
“Three,” she said, snarkily continuing his count . . . I don’t care what you think. And four . . . I don’t need your permission to do whatever I want, big guy.”
“Maybe, but you don’t know where I’m going, either.”
“Oh, like I can’t find out. Even vampires have to file flight plans, and I can certainly get the tail numbers from your planes.”
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