My voice sounded breathy as I said, "You have to be careful French-kissing vampires, Nicky."
He licked the fresh blood from his lip and said, "I'm not used to the fangs yet."
"Bloody kisses like sweet copper pennies in my mouth," Jean-Claude said.
"Pretty talk," Nicky said.
"Jean-Claude always knows just what to say. I think it's something about being French," I said.
"Non, ma petite, mon lionne, I am inspired by such bounty before my eyes."
"You know that Nathaniel likes to bite, right?" Sin asked.
We all looked at him.
"I've seen kisses that ended with lips bleeding a lot more than this."
"Then we will have to do better, won't we, Nicky?" Jean-Claude said.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want the kid disappointed."
"Don't call me kid."
"Prove that you aren't one and I'll stop."
"How do I prove it?"
Nicky smiled, a damn-near-evil smile. "I've got a few ideas."
30
NICKY TRIED, BUT in the end Sin saw it all as a sort of competitive dare, so nothing that Jean-Claude was willing to do was enough to scare him off. I think Nicky would have been willing to personally do things that would have freaked Sin out, not because he wanted to have sex with him, because I was pretty sure he didn't, but because Nicky was just that competitive. If it was a game of chicken, Nicky was not going to be the one who flinched. Once I would have said the same of Jean-Claude, but something about Sin hit issues for him that I didn't even know he had. Maybe the idea that his issues were part of what had kept me from being in love with Cynric was true, but if so, how the hell did we prove it, or fix it? Hell, did we want to fix it?
All the clothes were gone, the four of us nude in the newly delivered double king-size bed with the red silk sheets from the even bigger bed tucked in and around the bed, so that we were still on top of the sheets rather than fighting to get them free. Jean-Claude's skin was so white against the crimson sheets. Sin's summer tan looked even darker against them. Nicky looked paler when his skin was next to Sin's tan, but he didn't look pale at all next to the nearly pure white of Jean-Claude's body. Nicky's eye seemed like an even brighter blue no matter if his face was next to Jean-Claude's midnight blue or Sin's blue tiger's eyes.
I kissed Nicky's face, laying my lips over the scar where his other eye would have been, and he put his arms around me as I lay on top of him and took my kisses to the scars, the same as my lips touching the closed lid of his other eye. I'd convinced him a while back that to me the scar was just another texture of his body to kiss and caress.
Someone started kissing along my back while I was kissing Nicky, and I wondered for a moment, but I didn't have to look to know the feel of Jean-Claude's lips against my skin. He spoke with his mouth against my lower back, his hands smoothing over my hips so that I writhed against the front of Nicky's body. "I need you on top, Nicky."
"All you have to do is ask," he said, and he rolled us over so fast that I made that high-pitched "eep" sound that was such a girl sound. I was just suddenly staring up at Nicky above me. I laughed a little nervously, because I could feel his weight above me. Muscle weighs more, and so did Nicky. We weren't having intercourse yet, so it was just all that heaviness pressing me against the bed. I had a moment of realizing that if he wanted to trap me, I was trapped. It sped my heart, raced my pulse, and made me swallow hard. If Nicky hadn't topped me in the bedroom, would that moment have scared me for real? I don't know, because he did and I let that little flash of fear grow, because I knew he'd like it.
He leaned over my face, sniffing loudly along my skin. "Fear makes the meat taste better," he said in a voice that held an edge of growl. When he raised his face, his eye had changed to lion amber. He let a trickle of growl slide out from between his human lips. I trusted him utterly, but the game was to be afraid in that safe roller-coaster-ride way, so I didn't fight that moment of terror that thrilled through my body. It was instinctive, hardwired into that primitive part of the brain that remembered what a growl like that meant against the skin of your throat.
Sin crawled across the bed from the right side of us. He lowered his head and sniffed the air near me. "She's never afraid of me like this."
"You don't know how to be scary yet," Nicky said.
The weight was suddenly crushing and I said, "Too heavy."
Jean-Claude appeared over Nicky's shoulder and I realized I was pinned under their combined weight. If Nicky hadn't been raised just a little above my chest, they might have been heavy enough to keep me from breathing. I managed to say, "If we were fucking this would be fun, but it's just heavy now."
Jean-Claude laid his head on Nicky's shoulder, settling even more of his weight on top of the other man and on me. "Nicky, do you want to be inside her when I feed?"
"Yes, let me make her come at least once before you feed, because once you do I won't last."
"As you like," Jean-Claude said; he smiled down at me and then slid out of sight, but I could tell by the weight that he wasn't on top of Nicky anymore. Nicky was free to move his body enough for me to feel that he could pretend for Cynric that he was into sex with Jean-Claude, but some things couldn't be faked. He wasn't completely soft, but he wasn't that eager hardness that he usually was when we got to this point. I expected him to change positions, or ask for a hand or maybe a mouth from me, but he didn't. He moved his hips so that I had the choice of spreading my legs or him grinding himself into my pelvis. I wanted to make love to him, so I helped. By the time he'd settled himself between my legs, he was harder than he had been just seconds before, but still not hard enough. With most men, if they weren't hard when they started, you needed to back up and do some more foreplay, but Nicky raised himself on those amazing arms, his upper body rising above me so that I caressed my hands along all that hard work in the gym carved into the body above me. I gazed down the line of his body past the ridged hardness of his stomach until I could see that part of him that he was pushing against me. Even only partially erect, the sight of it tightened my body, and I threw my head back with a small cry so that I was suddenly staring up into his face.
His hair had spilled forward so I could see all of his face. There was no way for him to hide. The first time I'd seen him like this he'd ducked his head and let his hair fall back in front of his scars, but now he just looked at me bold as brass, his face and that one blue eye so confident, so Nicky, now that he knew that I wouldn't look away or flinch. He wasn't going to see anything in my face except how much I wanted him.
He smiled down at me and began to push his hips as if he were already inside me. It made that part of his body rub against my opening and other things. I could feel him growing harder, bigger, and the sensation of it drew small, eager sounds from me, so that I raised my hips to meet him, but he was still not quite hard enough. He put all his weight on one arm and reached down to use his hand to angle the crown inside me. I almost protested, but as soon as the head penetrated I couldn't speak for just a second and he was already pushing himself in and out of me. With every thrust he grew firmer, longer, until he was as hard as he needed to be to start fucking me. We made love, but I made love with all my men. Nicky liked to fuck; there was no other word for what we both enjoyed together. He drove himself in and out of me fast and faster, driving himself deep so that he hit every sweet spot inside me over and over and over again. If Jean-Claude hadn't been with us Nicky would have pinned my wrists and made it rougher, but that didn't work for my raven-haired fiance. So I got to look down the long line of Nicky's body and watch his body work in and out of mine, until in between one stroke and another I orgasmed, screaming my pleasure into his face. It startled him, I think, but he kept his rhythm so the orgasm built and fed into another one and another. I gripped his arms where he held himself above me, and if it had been most of my other lovers I would have raked my nails down his arms, but we'd had this discussion before so that even while I screamed my ple
asure I didn't forget that some night soon he'd be in charge of me and if I bled him now he'd bleed me later. I didn't like being bled during sex any more than he did. Well, except for one type of bloodletting.
Nicky's voice was clear, but full of the effort he was putting into fucking me and not going himself. "Jean-Claude, feed now. I'm not going to last much longer."
Jean-Claude came up behind him again, but this time their combined weight only pushed against Nicky's hips, burying him deeper inside me, which made me cry out again. Nicky shuddered above me, eye closing for a moment, and then he said, "Do it, Jean-Claude."
Jean-Claude smoothed Nicky's yellow hair to one side to bare the strong, thick line of his neck. He whispered in French against Nicky's hair, and I felt some tension go out of Nicky. He was still thick and hard inside me, still holding that impossibly muscular chest up off me on the swell and curve of his arms, but I knew the vampire was inside his head now. Jean-Claude raised his head. "Are you ready, mon lionne?" he whispered.
"Yes, Jean-Claude, do it. Just do it!"
Jean-Claude opened his mouth wide, so that I caught a flash of fangs, his eyes a solid burning blue, as if the night sky had caught fire, and then he struck. I could see his mouth locked on the side of Nicky's neck, watch his throat swallowing, his mouth sucking. Nicky's body reacted, beginning to pump inside me again. He was already buried as deep inside me as he could go, and Jean-Claude's body pinned his hips so he didn't have much movement, but what he had was enough. He began to move faster in and out, in and out, hitting deep and hard, so that I screamed out again for him, fighting not to close my eyes so that I could see Jean-Claude drinking him down, Nicky's eye closed, face almost slack as if he'd already gone, but I could feel him harder than ever, so hard, so thick, so . . . He brought me screaming again, and this time he yelled with me, his body shoving one more time deep inside me. I could feel him quivering inside me as he came, and his body shuddered above me as the vampire rode him.
Nicky finally collapsed, throwing his chest to one side so that he didn't bury my face against his pecs. I appreciated it, not just because I didn't have to eat my way to freedom through his chest, but because I could still see Jean-Claude at his throat. I was looking at him with my body still thrumming with all those orgasms as the vampire rose up. His mouth was still open wide enough that I saw him lick along his fangs; his face for that instant was as bestial as any wereanimal's and then it was gone, hidden behind that beautiful face. Only the eyes shining with blue-black fire showed what was inside and had gotten to come out for a few minutes.
He helped Nicky roll to one side where he just lay there, eye closed; only the rise and fall of his chest let me know he was alive. A thin line of blood trickled from the neat fang marks in the side of his neck. For them to bleed that much meant Jean-Claude had gotten a little carried away. We'd all enjoyed ourselves.
Jean-Claude was on all fours above me, his body hard and ready, and just the sight of him above me like that made me cry out again. I reached for him, but he caught my hands and said, "Sin, help me move her to the edge of the bed."
"Why?"
"So you can join us. You need a little encouragement to be able to feed the ardeur for Anita."
I didn't know what he meant at first, but Sin pulled-half-carried me to the edge of the bed and I could suddenly see what Jean-Claude meant. Sin wasn't hard, or ready. He was soft, hanging loose against the front of his body. He hadn't enjoyed watching the three of us together. I didn't know what about it had bothered him, but something had--his body told me that.
Jean-Claude moved me to the edge until my head spilled over the side and I was looking at Sin's body upside down. It wasn't one of my favorite positions for giving oral, but with him still soft, it would be good. I'd change positions when he got hard enough, or that was my plan. Sin was almost too tall for the lower bed, all that long leg so that he had to lean in, so he was almost doing a standing push-up just so I could reach him. Jean-Claude's hands cupped my hips, and I cupped the backs of Sin's thighs and sucked him down, so soft and warm. I loved sucking on a man when he was this soft. There was no fight to breathe, no choking, just the sensation of him in my mouth. Jean-Claude's hands caressed my hips and I felt the tip of him brush my opening. It made me pause with my mouth buried as tight to Sin's body as I could get. Jean-Claude entered me and I was so wet, so ready from everything that Nicky and I had done. It was amazing feeling Jean-Claude's body slide inside me. It made me moan with Sin's body in my mouth. He was already growing harder. Jean-Claude found his rhythm quickly and brought me to climax with Sin still inside my mouth, so I screamed my orgasm around him. He shuddered and when I came up shallow on him he was thicker and he started moving himself inside my mouth with me sucking him, so that we started to find a rhythm of him inside my mouth as Jean-Claude found one between my legs.
"Unleash the ardeur, ma petite; unleash it so you will feed on both of us when we go."
I called the ardeur, unleashed it, uncaged it, and let it roar over all three of us so that the two men both cried out. Jean-Claude brought me again with the feel of him inside me, sliding over and over on that sweet spot just inside. It made me scream around Sin's body as he thrust deeper inside my throat. I didn't have to fight my gag reflex now, because with the ardeur I didn't have one; it was great and made oral sex even more amazing than it was. I used my hands on Sin's body to urge him to fuck me harder and faster, shoving all that hard length down my throat deeper than I could ever take it without the ardeur riding me, riding all of us.
"Close," Sin gasped out.
"Hold until I bring her one more time." And he caressed himself over that spot three more times to match those three words. The weight grew and spread and I was nothing but pleasure, shaking and shrieking between the two of them.
"Oh, God, please," Sin yelled.
"Almost!" Jean-Claude answered him and shoved himself faster and faster inside me, not trying to caress that spot near my opening, but places deeper inside me.
Sin had stopped moving; I think he was afraid to keep fucking my throat or he'd go before Jean-Claude, so he stayed almost frozen above me. I started sucking on him again since he wasn't moving for me. He said, "Anita, please, I'll . . ."
Jean-Claude said, "In three."
"God, you're joking," Sin said, but he thrust himself in my mouth and down my throat, once. Jean-Claude shoved between my legs. Twice inside my throat. A second time deep inside me. The third time Sin thrust down my throat, and Jean-Claude said, "Now, now!" Sin buried himself as deep inside my throat as he could; I drove my nails into his thigh and his ass and would have screamed as Jean-Claude thrust himself as deep inside me as he could go and they both poured themselves inside me at the same time. I could feel Sin pulsing, spilling the heat of him down my throat, and Jean-Claude pouring warm between my legs, and I fed on them. I fed on the seed of them spilling inside me. I fed on the feel of their bodies plunged inside me. I fed on my nails digging into Sin's body, on Jean-Claude's hands on me. I fed on them everywhere they touched me, and when I got Sin's blood under my nails, it seemed to absorb up through my fingertips.
He cried out above me, and then he screamed. I always valued when the men screamed for me. It was so damn rare. It all felt so good, so right, and then I felt power rushing over me, through me, and it wasn't coming from Jean-Claude. It was Sin. I couldn't see what was happening, because my face was still buried upside down against his body, but that body was doing some kind of magic that I'd never felt before. I had a moment to start to pull away from him, so I wouldn't be choking on him when the ardeur left me and whatever this power was happened, but I was still blind against his body when the room started to shake and all I could think was Earthquake . . . St. Louis doesn't have earthquakes, and then we were all scrambling to untangle ourselves and try to find cover, but how do you hide from an earthquake when you're in a cave?
31
IT WASN'T AN earthquake, but the lump under the rug that Sin tripped over turned
out to be the floor. It had cracked and buckled as if something had torn through the rock. All the floors in the underground were solid rock, some with flooring over it, but it was basically bedrock, or close to it.
"What the hell did that?" I asked, staring down at the rip in the solid rock. It wasn't deep, just baring more rock underneath, but it was a nearly straight line about five feet long and maybe six inches wide. The rock stuck up on either side of it like a miniature mountain range just brought to life with a valley in between, waiting for grass to fill it.
I hugged myself, but the black silk robe wasn't much for warmth. Jean-Claude was back in his much thicker black robe with the fur collar and cuffs. We'd put on the robes because the guards on the door had come into the room when they heard the noise of the floor cracking. It had sounded like an explosion, and the guards had hit their general alarm button before they came into the room pale and ready to defend us from the danger, except that there hadn't been anything to attack. How can you protect your charges from something that can split the floor open without leaving a trace?
Nicky had gone to get some of the guards with the most experience with magic and metaphysics--the Harlequin. They'd spent centuries dealing with the Mother of All Darkness and the vampire council, who were all heavy hitters for stuff like this.
"If we had not killed him I would wonder if it was the Earthmover warning us," Jean-Claude said.
"He could level a city with a real earthquake, but I didn't know he could do things like this," I said.
"I honestly do not know, but it has the appearance of his sort of power."
I nodded. "Agreed, but I cut his heart out personally, so it's not him."
"Who's the Earthmover?" Sin asked from the chair by the fireplace. He didn't have a robe here, so he'd put his jeans back on and was sort of huddling in the chair. He'd managed to pull those long legs up so that he was hugging his knees. He reminded me more of the teenager I'd first met now than the confidently arrogant lover of earlier. It was almost comforting to see the younger Cynric peeking out of that handsome, muscular body.
Crimson Death Page 34