"You're very beautiful," the young man whispered.
"Thank you," she replied into his ear. "What is your name?"
"Felix. You are?"
"Cliantha." She searched the room for Demetri. The tingle within her began to fan outward, heat and longing growing more intense with each moment that he denied her. She looked up at Felix, her fingers trailing lightly over his arm. She leaned into him, creating a small circle of intimacy around them as she angled her body toward him.
Cliantha?
She closed her eyes and shuddered, her body aching with arousal. Demetri's voice inside her head was a caress, a promise of passion and madness to be indulged at their whim. His displeasure at her companion's attention amused her, but she wasn't foolish enough to disregard his annoyance. She smiled at the boy. Before she could utter a sound, Demetri appeared at her back.
"My love," she murmured as he pushed aside the collar of her silk jacket and lowered his lips to the bared curve of her neck. A flush crawled up her spine and quivered in her stomach as she arched into him.
"Go." The boy fled at Demetri's quiet command.
Cliantha writhed when he pulled her hips snug to his.
"Why did you want to come here, Demetri?" Her voice became breathless as their bodies moved in subtle rhythm with the blaring music. She tried to turn, but he refused her movement.
Demetri's hands shifted, slid under her jacket, and covered her breasts. His fingers teased rigid nipples, tugging the sensitive tips as he pressed more tightly to her. She guided his left hand to her thigh, making him murmur his approval. She raised her foot to the footrest then leaned away from him, invitation blatant.
He hesitated, so she moved his hand between her legs, shaking in anticipation of what he'd do when he encountered bare skin. Demetri's right hand splayed across her stomach, held her immobile as he penetrated her moist depths, fingers burrowing into her flesh as she tried not to cry out her pleasure. She quaked in his arms, thrilled to his touch, her body caught in the crossfire of bloodlust and the desperate need to have him inside her.
"Fuck me, Demetri." She cared nothing of their surroundings.
"In front of all these mortals?" His words were soft with amusement, reminding her of furtive glances being cast in their direction. Demetri's expert fingers teased, gliding over hyper-sensitive flesh as he kissed the side of her neck and his tongue caressed the throbbing vein at the base.
"Tell me what you want, slut." His voice was a commanding rasp next to her ear. His fingers pushed deeper into her pussy, sliding in and out in a rapid rhythm, while his thumb toyed with her clit.
"I have," she gasped. "As talented as your fingers are, I want your cock. Fuck me until I can't stand up!"
He bit into her neck, just enough to draw a drop or two of blood. His growl made her breath catch, and she moaned, her cunt clenching his stroking fingers. "Please... Demetri..."
Demetri's fangs buried deeper into her neck, and he held her through the spasm of euphoria that shook her as he drank. Timing the sucking of his feeding to the easy rhythm of his fingers, he denied her the release she'd begged for, kept her on the edge of ecstasy.
The low, guttural rumble of Cliantha's frustration added to the sweetness of her blood. When she attempted to break his hold, he gripped his captive tighter.
Demetri drew away from her neck, and his fingers slid free of her pussy. He turned her to face him and brought sticky fingers to his lips. He wiped the droplet of blood that clung to his mouth, and offered the bloodied finger to her. She sucked his finger into her mouth and her eyes closed. He pulled her deeper into the shadows. Her breaths were hoarse, and he held her close, sharing every tremor that passed through her.
"Come." He sat at a table cloistered in darkness. She stood before him, tense, dazed, wanton desire in every rigid detail of her stance. Leaning back, he basked in her need for his possession.
Chapter Three
Prey
"What do you want, Cliantha?"
"You."
"You have me."
"Let's leave here, Demetri," She managed to keep the plea from her voice. Not that it mattered; he knew her thoughts. "I want to go home."
"I thought you would enjoy this place, my darling." He raised one eyebrow, taunting mockery in his tone. "You disappoint me."
"It is not you who has been disappointed!"
"Have I disappointed you, dearest?" His smirk pissed her off. Before she could hiss at him, he grabbed her hand and yanked. She stumbled forward, and he lifted her onto his lap. She straddled his thighs, and he tugged at her heavy skirt, letting it trail over his right hip. His hands rested on her thighs, hidden by the luxurious velvet of the skirt.
Cliantha laughed and ran slender fingers over the fine, spiked length of his strawberry-blond hair. The longest strands in the front framed his angular face, brushed his shoulders, then shaped to a point near the centre of his back. Tonight he had tinted the sculpted top with glittering silver.
She cradled his head between her hands and gazed into eyes of endless, shifting shades; his right eye, brown, held all the colors of earth, while in the blue of his other eye, lived the hues of a forbidden summer sky. Her thumbs brushed over arched eyebrows, drifted downward to skim the slope of his nose, and came to rest on either side of his smile.
"I want to make love with you, Demetri." Her eyes locked again with his. "I want you to possess me. To own me as no one else can. I want you to consume me so that I live within you."
"We came here to hunt, darling." He shrugged.
"I came here to meet my master."
Demetri smiled, the expression far more gentle than many would have thought him capable, and he pulled her into a lingering, sensual kiss. He slipped several buttons free, lifted one soft, full breast to his mouth. His tongue circled her responsive nipple, flicking with light strokes before he closed his lips and sucked. Cliantha's moaned softly and he eased away. He looked up at her, eyes glowing with liquid fire in the darkness, and his fangs gleamed white and deadly when he smiled.
Cliantha glanced down, laughing at the sight of her opened blouse and the twin globes of her breasts half hidden by the gauzy fabric. Her jacket acted like a cape around her shoulders—only he witnessed her exposed body. She reached lower, caught at the snap of his dark jeans and tugged it. When he made no objection, she slid the zipper down and eased the heavy fabric aside. Her chest heaved, and her breaths were shallow and quick as she freed his erection and caressed his rigid length.
"We are in a room filled with people, Cliantha." His mouth quirked upward at one corner, his tone mocking.
"I don't care, I want you, Demetri," she paused, "and I will have you. Now."
He shook his head and grabbed her hair, yanking until she winced. "You will have what I give you. When I am ready to allow you!"
Shouted conversations and deafening music murmured like static in the background. Cliantha's awareness didn't extend past him and her insatiable desire for his touch. She gripped the silken locks that framed his face, twisting the strands around her fingers as she rose and lifted her skirt. She positioned herself, biting her bottom lip as she lowered herself onto him. He filled her, made her smile as she continued to stare into his coldly amused gaze.
"You have what you need, Clia." His hands locked on her hips, fingers digging into her flesh as he lifted her and slammed her down hard. "Fuck me well, bitch, or I will make you crawl before you touch me again."
Demetri wrapped his arms around her waist as she shuddered in his embrace.
She met his eyes, her mouth curving into a smile.
"Before this night is over, Demetri, it may be you who crawls."
She braced her feet on the floor and her body found the rhythms of the club. Music permeated her, seemed to emanate from within her, and the multitude of mortal heartbeats became a single primal pulse that she matched with her hips as she rocked against him.
Demetri loosened his hold on her, moved his hands to her thrusting hips a
nd imposed a faster rhythm to her motion. Her scream reverberated inside her mind and his an instant before he pulled her mouth to his neck. Her fangs descended into his throat, silencing the cry of her orgasm. The savagery of her bite caused him a fleeting moment of pain.
He held her in a vise-like grip as she drank. Had he given her freedom, she'd have tumbled them to the floor with the force of her hunger. Waves of maddened euphoria passed over him. He lifted her, then pulled her down so he was fully sheathed in her clutching wet heat.
The spasms of her orgasm pulled on his cock, triggered his own climax. His fangs sank into the soft mound of her left breast, near her heart, and her fingers brushed over his hair as she whispered words of love.
Endless minutes later, Demetri drew back and smiled up into her dazed eyes. He loved to see her this way, radiant with the sheer delirium of his possession. He owned Cliantha as he had few others, and he never tired of her devotion. That she exulted in belonging to him only added to his satisfaction.
"Are we going to leave now?" She straightened and rose, shivering when their bodies separated. She remained motionless as Demetri zipped his jeans, then closed her blouse for her. She stepped back and sat across from him, her fingers entwined with his on the smooth surface of the table.
"Is there nothing here that appeals to your appetite? Perhaps your young companion, what was his name? Felix?"
"I had thought you sent him to me." She smiled.
"He desires you even now. He's been watching you."
"And has he seen all he wanted to see?" Her eyes were alive with dark amusement.
"I think not, but he does know I have just had what he covets tonight."
"The boy's a fool."
"He wants you."
"So he's a fool with exquisite taste." She grinned. "That makes him no less a fool."
"And am I a fool as well, dearest?"
"No," she whispered. "Never."
Demetri smiled, expression indulgent, and he cast a glance in the boy's direction.
"Let's take him with us, he might be rather entertaining." Demetri idly raised his hand and beckoned.
Felix stepped forward and joined them. The master vampire indicated the chair next to Cliantha and her eyebrow rose when Felix dropped into the seat and brushed a hand over hers. The gesture amused her and her lover. They recognized it as the boy's attempt at subtle seductiveness.
"Is this whom you were waiting for?" Felix locked his eyes on Cliantha's features.
"This is Demetri," she said. "He is an old friend. It was his suggestion that brought me to here tonight, Felix."
"Then I'm glad he recommended the Garden." Felix laughed, and continued to ignore Demetri. He was drunk, and it made him both foolhardy and arrogant.
Demetri smirked at the impudence, then rose. He bent to kiss her cheek, and sent the thought directly into her mind, I'll be close by when you're ready to leave.
She shivered, shifted in her chair and nodded. Seconds later, a chilly void marked his absence. He'd left the club.
"Would you like another drink?" Felix ordered another beer from the waitress who had stopped at their table.
"No." She shook her head. "I haven't finished the first one you bought."
He smiled and slid his chair closer to hers.
"Do you always fuck your lovers in crowded nightclubs?" Felix asked with a polite smile.
Cliantha stared at him for a moment, measured the intent of his bluntness "Only Demetri. He is an addiction I have suffered a very long time."
Felix raised a hand to smooth it over the flowing mane of her hair, then his hand slid beneath her long jacket and sought the soft curve of her breast.
Cliantha caught his wrist before his hand closed over her flesh. She permitted herself the pleasure of causing him a small amount of pain for his audacity. "I am not a whore to be groped and fondled by strangers, Felix!"
"I think you are." The young man smiled and jerked his wrist free of her grasp. "I think it's exactly what you came here for."
Anger brought the first swift and searing pang of thirst. She cooled her ire and leaned forward, then smiled again when his attention dropped to the revealing scoop of her neckline.
"And you think you can give me what I want, young Felix?" Her appreciative gaze moved over him, cataloging the silken length of rich chestnut hair that fell around his shoulders, and the dark brows that arched over intense eyes. He was a handsome boy, almost beautiful. Totally unlike Demetri, who was beauty incarnate to the woman who adored him.
"Perhaps you're right."
Felix finished the last of his beer and grinned as he moved to sit in Demetri's vacant seat. He held his hands out to her, palms upward.
Cliantha shook her head, dark mirth filling her. She took one of his proffered hands and tugged him to his feet.
"I think not, young one. You are not Demetri, nor do I wish you to be."
Felix pulled her close to him, and bent his head to hers. She returned his eager kiss without real interest, and prodded him toward the exit.
Chapter 4
The game continues…
Silently, they left The Savage Garden. The street glistened, running water vivid testimony that Mother Nature had made good on her promise of rain. Cliantha sensed Demetri nearby. She caught the shift of his thoughts, and aroused hunger rekindled within her when she understood the darker nature of this night's hunt.
Energized, the compelling need to enjoy her lover's game consumed her concentration. Felix walked lost in thought beside her, smug and confident that it was his presence evoking her shallow breathing and eagerness. In part, he was right, though not in the manner he might assume.
They strolled a few doors down the deserted sidewalk, Clia feeding on Felix's erotic fantasies. His urge to touch her grew with every step, until the tingle in his fingertips caused a twitch. He moved closer, his arm encircling her waist. When she didn't object, his hand moved lower to stroke the curve of her ass. She yanked him into a nearby alley.
She blocked the stench of decay and stale sex, mind peeled for that delicious moment his desire turned to fear as she dragged him deeper into the soundless shadows.
Felix hadn't uttered a sound, but his eyes widened, his body rigid with tension as he waited. She shoved him back against the brick wall. His surprise notched up further, his breaths quickening, his muscles trembling, betraying his uncertainty when she leaned into him. She held his eyes and his mind was open to her, allowing her to read every thought he had while her hand slithered across his chest, then dipped lower to massage the growing hardness between his thighs. The pressure of her hand grew steadily and he thrust his hips into the demanding caresses. When she began to nuzzle the side of his neck, he laughed out loud.
"You've had a change of heart," he taunted, with a weak attempt at cavalier dryness.
"A change of heart?" She repeated the words with a new inflection, one that implied the concept was absurd. "I want you, Felix. And I don't wait. I take what I want."
Cliantha reached for the buckle of his belt and released the clip. She worked her hand into the open front of his jeans. Her lips covered his and her tongue explored his mouth with the same fierce urgency as her fingers moving over his rigid cock.
"I don't think I've ever been fucked in an alley," Felix mused when she drew the soft velvet of her skirt up over her hips.
His hand, caught in her steely grip never made contact with her skin as he peered past her shoulder.
"You shouldn't toy with him, love." Demetri kissed her neck. "He thinks you want him. Do you?"
Cliantha nodded and smiled. Reflected in Felix's mind, she saw herself, elongated fangs gleaming and her eyes glowing golden red fire.
"Show him what you want, pet."
She laughed and spun around to face her lover and master as she hauled Demetri away from Felix and pushed him to the ground. Demetri's eyebrows rose and annoyance pulsed off him in waves. She saw the shift in emotion as she climbed across his thighs. She didn't
care.
She pulled at his jeans until she had exposed only what she needed to fulfill her immediate desire, then unbuttoned her blouse and leaned over him. Full breasts grazed the silk of his shirt and she shivered at the sensation of his heat radiating through the smooth, cool fabric. Her hips ground against the smooth length of his cock. She moaned, crushing her moist heat to him.
Demetri's hands closed over her breasts and he squeezed with enough pressure to elicit a tiny gasp of pain. She jerked away from him and tore open his shirt. Before he could anticipate her or exert control, Cliantha impaled herself on him and rode him with an abandon that shocked him still.
Tense and focused, she trapped his hands and their fingers entwined. Her back arched and her hips rocked harder against him, her pussy clutching him. Swift and deadly, she lunged, her fangs tearing into his chest near his heart. Real pain rippled the length of Demetri's body. The wash of his blood and discomfort flowing down her throat was the sweetest ambrosia. She drew more into her mouth, gorging on the life she was addicted to and inexorably entangled in for eternity.
* * * * *
The shock of her assault thrilled and angered him—two might play this game of dominance, but Demetri always won the contest of wills. Cliantha had been allowed her moment. He rolled, trapping her beneath him. He tugged her head from his chest, growling over her snarls of objection. He yanked her head to the side, baring the curve of her throat. He bit with no more gentleness than she had, and her body convulsed and tightened around him. A growl of fury escaped her and he hammered his cock into her.
"Demetri..."
Hunters' Game Page 2