Then she ran from me, and the only thing I knew was instinct—the drive to catch her, to fuck her, to bite her, to own her.
And Kieran was in my way. After warning me to be careful because I’d scared her, it only took one look in my eyes and he released me, stepping back to make it clear he wouldn’t interfere.
A split second later, I was in the hallway. Even if I hadn’t seen her racing through the candlelit corridor, I would have known her direction from the smell of her blood. As her head began to turn back, I popped over to the set of double doors at the end of the path and stepped off to the side, waiting in the shadows.
She was still looking over her shoulder as she approached the doors and was about to run right into them. Though I intended to catch her anyway, I was glad I was there to stop her from breaking her beautiful face on the vast, solid wood doors.
I opened my arms, and she unknowingly ran right into them. Then they automatically enveloped her in an unbreakable cage, keeping her body pressed to mine.
She whipped her head around to look up at me and gasped. “How? But—what the heck?”
“Now, now, little consort, you shouldn’t run from your mate,” I tsked with a teasing smile.
“Little what?”
“Mate,” I clarified with a shrug. “Whatever you want to call it, it means you’re mine, love.”
“My name is Selene, not consort or mate or your love!” she snapped.
Selene. Even her fucking name was gorgeous. And damn, all the fire she exhibited made it nearly impossible to think about anything but burying my cock into her tight, virgin pussy.
It was a good thing consorts didn’t feel any physical desire either. I knew, without a doubt, any man who’d had his hands on my Selene would have been dead the moment I found him.
“I beg to differ, my sweet Selene,” I drawled. Brushing her hair back over one shoulder, I bent my head to skate my tongue over the two small, round marks on her neck. “These say you’re mine.” I moved down a little and licked over her rapid pulse. “Your racing heartbeat”—I slid one hand down and around her front to cup her center—“the wetness between your thighs”—my other hand pressed her into my chest, and I licked my lips at the feel of her large breasts pillowed against me, the stiff peaks poking through the material—“and your taut nipples, all proclaim you as mine.”
Selene tried to look outraged, but when I removed my hand and replaced it with my shaft’s hard bulge, she closed her eyes and moaned.
“Open your eyes,” I demanded. They fluttered a few times before lifting. “Don’t ever deprive me of your gorgeous gems.”
“This is all...I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“I know, love. It’s a lot to take in. And I promise I’ll explain everything to you when we get home.” I kissed her forehead to soothe her worry.
“I’m not ready to go back to my parents’ house. I want to visit with—”
“Not your parents’ house, Selene,” I informed her firmly. “Our house. And you’ll only be a second away from Thana. You can visit her as much as you want...after.”
“After what?”
I sighed and whispered another kiss over her forehead, her temple, down to her cheek, and over to her ear. “After I make you mine in every way.”
A shiver raced through Selene’s body, making me smile at knowing I affected her as much as she did me. “You keep saying that, but I don’t understand why you suddenly think you—”
With another heavy sigh, I cut her off. “Let me explain it another way, love.”
I covered her mouth with my own, and the burst of flavor from her, as well as the tidal wave of lust that hit me, caused me to fall back against the door. She sucked in a breath, and I used it to sweep my tongue into her mouth. She tasted like everything delicious in the world all rolled into one, and I groaned at the decadent pleasure.
Grabbing her plump, full ass, I lifted her body, surprising her and causing her to close her legs around my hips for support. The position lined us up perfectly, and I ground my hard-on into the heat of her pussy as I devoured her mouth. I had to have been making a fucking mess of my suit pants with the amount of come leaking from the engorged tip of my cock. “Fuck,” I muttered as I released her lips to take in a heaving breath. Selene was shifting restlessly, seeking more friction between her legs. She was staring into my face, eyes open and clouded with raw need. “Good girl,” I praised. “I could get lost in those beautiful eyes, love.”
She licked her lips, and I groaned as my hips punched forward, and she let out a little whimper. “I’ll give you what you need right now, Selene. Then I’ll take the rest at home, in our bed.” She barely acknowledged my comment, lost in desire. “Keep those pretty eyes open, love. I want to see them while you come.”
Her pupils were dilated nearly to the edges of her irises, but when I mentioned coming, the purple all but disappeared. I instinctively knew what my woman needed, and I was going to give it to her while trying desperately not to climax with her.
Gripping her ass cheeks, I yanked her into me and guided her pussy up and down on my shaft. She rocked with my movements, and as our pace increased, her mouth opened a little. A moan passed her lips, taking me nearer to the edge, but then she cried out, and it was almost as good as a bucket of water over my head. “Shhh, love. You need to keep quiet if you want me to continue.” I pressed my lips to her ear, my hot breath causing her to shudder. “If anyone hears what you sound like when you come, I’ll fucking kill them before I tan your pretty little hide and fuck you fast and hard until you remember your lesson every time you move the next day.”
Selene dropped her head into my neck and bit down on my skin, muffling her scream as she flew over the edge. Her body was wracked with violent shudders, her hips undulating against my rod and drawing out her climax.
I had barely been hanging on, but I was confident I had enough control...until she bit me.
“Fuck!” I shouted as my dick exploded.
It was a good fucking thing I could teleport, or getting home with the sticky mess in the front of my pants would have been interesting.
In the blink of an eye, we were standing in the master bedroom of our house, and I tenderly laid my consort on the large bed in the center of the room.
3
Selene
“I-I-I don’t understand.” Pressing my elbows against the mattress, my head swiveled as I looked around the unfamiliar room. Only a moment ago, we’d been in the hallway leading away from the ballroom. Between rushing from the party after he’d tasted my blood, having my first orgasm, and finding myself in a strange place without any clue how we’d gotten here, I was super disoriented. “Where are we?”
“Our bedroom,” he answered, staring at me as he unbuckled his belt and pulled it through the loops of his dress pants.
I sprung to a sitting position, holding my palms out toward him. “Whoa! Hold up! What do you think you’re doing?”
“Getting out of my sticky pants now that we’re home.” He dropped the belt on the floor, kicked off his shoes and socks, and reached for the button at his waist. “Feeling your teeth in my neck was too much for my control.”
He had said something about taking me to our home and only being a second away from my best friend, but it hadn’t made sense at the time. Then again, nothing seemed to add up since this man appeared at Kieran’s side. When he’d kissed me instead of answering my questions, my confusion hadn’t seemed important. But now that we were alone in a bedroom, I couldn’t let him distract me again by stripping out of his clothes and talking all sexy. “Do you live with Kieran and Thana?”
“No, but our estate is close to theirs, and I’m looking forward to showing you around after.” He prowled closer to the bed, his pants hanging low on his hips after he’d unbuttoned them.
I felt as though I was the prey he was hunting and wrapped my arms around my middle in a protective gesture. “After what?”
“After we finish what we starte
d when you rubbed against me until you came.” His eyes burned as his gaze drifted down my body.
My cheeks heated from an odd combination of desire and embarrassment. Shaking my head, I cried, “I don’t even know your name.”
“Forgive me the oversight, love.” He bent at the waist and dipped low, sweeping his arm out in an old-fashioned gesture. “I’m Athan Bancroft, the man who is proud as fuck to call you his.”
“Yours?” I echoed softly, confused by why something deep inside was thrilled at his claim on me when all logic said I should run in the opposite direction...again.
He trailed his fingers down my calf and ankle, lifting my foot to remove my shoe before moving to the other side to do the same. “I understand this must be confusing for you even though you feel the connection between us the same as me. There are so many things you don’t know yet since you haven’t had centuries to adjust to the idea of being my fated consort.”
I could only come up with one mind-blowing possibility to explain him using words like centuries and fated consort, appearing out of thin air, transporting me to another place, fangs, and tasting my blood. “Are you a-a-”—I couldn’t believe I was actually going to say this out loud—“vampire?”
“Yes, I was born a daywalker.” He smiled and flashed his pointy fangs. “My brothers were, too.”
“Holy crap! Does Thana know?” I shrieked, my eyes going wide as I tried to wrap my brain around the fact that vampires were apparently real, and I had made out with one.
He stripped off his shirt and climbed on the mattress. “Of course, she knows. She’s Kieran’s consort. He told her when they met.”
I scrambled back to put a little space between us, not that it would do much good since he was a vampire who could be anywhere he wanted in a fraction of a second. “My best friend is married to a vampire and didn’t tell me?”
“What could she have said that wouldn’t have made you think she’d lost her mind?” I had to give that to him since I almost definitely would have freaked out if Thana had called to tell me she’d fallen in love with a vampire. Offering him a sheepish grin, I circled my hand in the air to tell him to carry on. “Vampires have a bad rep that us daywalkers don’t deserve. We aren’t ravaging beasts turned by a bite like nightwalkers.” He winked, and a wicked smile curved his sexy lips. “Well, maybe a little. I suppose I might get a little beastly when ravaging my consort in bed.”
Despite the blush spreading across my cheeks, I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. “So you’re not the villain?”
“I’m not sure that most people would call me the good guy, but I’m definitely not bad and would never do anything to hurt you. Ever.” He sprawled out, his thigh resting against my side. Despite the layers from his pants and my dress between us, goose bumps still broke out across my skin just from our bodies touching. It could also be how serious his vow sounded. Or a combination of both.
Either way, my instincts told me that he was worthy of my trust—vampire or not. “So, nightwalkers are the bad kind of vampires?”
“Yes, we have good and evil like any other species,” he confirmed, nodding as he propped himself up on an elbow. I was distracted by the play of his muscles on his chest and had to shake my head to concentrate on what he was telling me. His lips curved up in a smile full of masculine satisfaction, showing me that he knew the depth of my reaction to him, before he continued, “My family, and others like us, are not like the vampires in stories. We can walk in the sunlight, although our skin burns more easily and our eyes are sensitive to it. We survive on blood but can still enjoy the delights offered by food and drink. Holy water, garlic, and crosses do not have the same impact on us as they do nightwalkers. A stake to the heart won’t kill us; though it’s painful as fuck and would definitely slow us down until we healed. Unless we’re beheaded and burned, we’ll recover. It’s a good thing we’re so hard to destroy when it comes to tracking nightwalkers down. I’ll take any advantage I can get when dispatching them to where they belong before they can destroy a potential consort.”
I’d always been open to the idea of the supernatural, so I wasn’t all that surprised when I accepted all the mind-boggling information he was giving me without freaking out. At least until this part. My heart started racing, and I had to gulp down a lump in my throat before I asked, “And a consort is the person you’re supposed to spend your very long life with?”
“Yes, fate gives every daywalker a consort, the one person they’re destined to be with. But many of us wait century upon century until they are born. They bear the mark of a potential consort on their neck.” His gaze dropped to my neck, staring at the spots that had always made me a little self-conscious. But as his eyes ate me up and he licked his lips, I suddenly felt like preening and showing off my mark. “And you’re mine.”
“How can you possibly know so quickly?” Hope started to build inside me, but I was afraid to believe. “You’d barely seen me across the room before you warned your brother away from me.”
“All night long, some part of me knew you were close, and I think my ring had something to do with the strength of that instinct. It can’t be a coincidence that I was drawn to this”—he lifted his hand, and the amethyst that was a perfect match for my eyes sparkled—“one hundred years ago and have been wearing it ever since.”
My fingers trembled as I reached out to trace the gem, jerking my hand back when it felt as though the stone sent a spark of electricity into my body. “It zapped me.”
“Earlier in the ballroom, it warmed as though it knew you were near and was urging me to find you.” Athan pulled the ring off his pinky and slid it onto my left ring finger. “I’m not sure how it’s possible, but I think the ring has been waiting all this time to be where it belongs. Just as I’ve been counting each and every day until I found you.”
That had to be the most romantic thing I’d ever heard in my entire life, which was apparently much shorter than Athan’s since I would turn twenty-one on my next birthday and he was hundreds of years old. But some part of me was still resisting the idea that everything could fall into place between us so easily. “It’s kind of hard to believe we’re meant to be together and only met by accident because my best friend and your brother are together.”
“I would have found you no matter what,” he vowed, tugging my hand until I tumbled onto his chest. “I’ve spent almost eight hundred years searching for you. Daywalkers are unable to feel sexual stimulation for anyone but our mate. When I touched you, my body finally stirred to life, and it was better than anything I’ve ever imagined. As was the sweet taste of your blood. Nothing could have kept me from you now that you walked this earth.”
The amount of time he’d spent without feeling desire boggled my mind. “There really hasn’t been anyone else for you in all that time?”
“Not a single woman has appealed to me on any level except for you.” He reached over and pressed my palm against his hard-on. “Even before we touched, I knew you were the other half of my soul. Our bond is undeniable, a connection beyond anything others of my kind have experienced before. And deep down inside, I know you feel it too.”
4
Athan
Selene’s hand curled around my thick shaft as she took in a slow, deep breath. “I’ve never, um…” She gulped, and her hand spasmed, drawing a groan from me. “I’ve never felt like this with anyone either.” She finished on a whisper, looking adorable with the pink stain blooming on her cheeks.
“We’ll learn together, love,” I assured her, running my hand over her silky hair.
“But...um…” She glanced away, and when her eyes came back to mine, her expression was nervous, the color on her face deepening to crimson. “You’re really big.”
It was probably not the smartest thing to do, but I couldn’t contain my hearty laughter. I quickly sobered when she looked sheepish and made a move to slide off me. I trapped her legs between mine and grasped her hands before rolling us over so that I
was on top. I positioned her arms above her head and kept both wrists shackled in one of my hands. With the other, I trailed the fingers over her lips and along her cheekbone before cupping her face.
“Thank you for the compliment,” I quipped with a wink. The corners of her mouth tilted up, and humor sparked in her lovely violet eyes. “We were made for each other, Selene,” I reiterated as I ground my hips into her, rocking so that my cock rubbed against her pussy. “Our bodies, our hearts, our souls...they are perfectly intertwined.”
Some of Selene’s nervous energy had abated, but it was replaced with a different sort of restlessness. I saw the desire in her eyes, and her hips shifted against mine. Bending my head, I gave her a tender kiss. After a minute, I pulled back and stared into her eyes, not bothering to mask the raw, feral hunger I was feeling.
“Athan,” she murmured. Holy shit. When she said my name in that breathy, lust-filled tone, it was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard.
“I want to go slow for you, love,” I grunted as my control began to slip. “This first time should be sweet and gentle as I make love to my consort.” Selene whimpered and arched her back on my next undulation, clearly having hit a very sensitive spot. It only fed the monster clawing at my self-restraint. My jaw clenched from the effort it was taking to keep from coming again.
I took her mouth in another deep, consuming kiss and growled when I finally let her up for air. “I’m afraid that once I’m inside you, I won’t be able to control myself. I promise to make it up to you, love, but I’m barely hanging on. It’s taking everything I have not to drive inside you until I’m completely sheathed by your tight, hot pussy, then fuck you fast and hard over and over until you pass out. Then I’ll lick your raw pussy until it’s soaked enough to take me again.”
With the Sunrise Page 2