by Eve Newton
He smiles his made-for-me smile and says, “Same here. I just didn’t know how to show you. How to really show you. How to treat you. I was so used to being with other Vampires, women I had sired or was going to sire, just because it was what I had to do. I had never fallen in love before. I wish I had handled it differently.” He sighs.
“Me too.”
He frowns and I elaborate, “I spent so many nights waiting for you. Wishing you would come to me. Or calling me to your bed. I loved it when you did that. Made me feel special.” I trail my hand up his chest, all the way to his face. I turn him towards me and gaze into his beautiful dark eyes. “You were my whole world. My savior. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t have done for you.”
He closes his eyes as my words sink in and says, “I should have known from the start you would be different. That you wouldn’t take to our lifestyle as easily as the others. What we talked about at the Penthouse last year? You being so sweet and innocent? It truly surprised me that you had managed to hold onto all of that. I should have known though; I should have paid more attention. I should have been more protective of you.”
I smile a slow, wide smile as I know he is talking about William.
“I liked him, you know. Had he not been so busy conquering a nation we might have gotten to know each other better. If it had been anyone, it would have been him,” I say quietly, finally admitting the possibility.
“Humph. Well, in that case, Long Live the King,” he grouses at me sarcastically.
“Don’t be such a grouch. He taught me a lot.”
“Yes, I recall he was all for teaching you new things.”
“Well, you wouldn’t so I found someone who would.”
“I didn’t want to teach you how to fight because I didn’t ever want you in a position to have to fight.”
“And yet. There I was at your side at Constantinople and kicked a lot of arse if I recall.”
He grins at me. “Yes, you fucking did. Christ, I have never seen anyone quite so skilled and without mercy.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I say with a half-smile.
“Oh, you really should. Even Dmitri was impressed, and he is pretty ruthless.”
Oooo, what an opening, something I have dying to know more about, so I say, “Speaking of Dmitri. He said he was there when you rescued me from Lance’s? I don’t remember.”
“Well, you weren’t exactly in your right frame of mind. But yes, he was.”
“But he didn’t recognize me in my natural form last year,” I say, confused.
“That’s because, to my utmost surprise, you Shifted. I don’t think I have ever been quite so startled in all my life.”
“What?”
“After I found you and you drank from me, you Shifted. He never saw you as you are.”
“What?” I ask again stupidly.
He looks at me as if I am stupid and says, “Well, I don’t suppose I expect you to remember. You mumbled something about needing to change. Be something different. It didn’t last long, a day at the most. You were too weak to hold on to it. Anyway, we had gone together to confront Lance after we found your abandoned castle. He denied ever seeing you, but his head Romani dropped the wards before we were about to leave, and I sensed you. I went to find you and he held off Lance for as long as he could. It nearly killed me,” he whispers. “Your pain. What he’d done to you. I wish you had let me kill him then.”
“There was no time. And after…I just didn’t want you to leave me. I’m sorry for the burden I must have been to you after that,” I say hesitantly.
“What?” he asks now, sitting upright. “Burden? You were never a burden to me, Aefre. What on Earth makes you think that?”
“I was broken. Completely dead inside. I was doing nothing to please you or anything to want you to keep me around.”
“Oh, Aefre, I would have looked after you to this day if that is what it took to get you back. Is that what made you come back? That you thought you weren’t pleasing me?” He frowns, and I look down at his words.
“That night, a thought came into my head. I didn’t have many thoughts, so this came as a bit of a revelation. I thought that if I didn’t respond to you, you were going to abandon me. I couldn’t bear the thought of that. I didn’t want you to leave me somewhere all alone. When I drank from you, it all became a lot clearer,” I say.
“Did I… did I give you a reason to think I would leave you?” he asks quietly.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. But you misunderstand. I wanted to come back then. It gave me a reason to come back.”
He smiles sadly. “Well, I can’t say that I would rather you have come back for yourself and your own reasons, but I will take what I can get.”
I kiss him softly and he lets me, for once not taking control.
A knock at the door brings us apart. “That had better not be Devon already,” he stands up, complaining and I chuckle.
He answers it and I stand, turning. It’s Nico. Wondered when he would turn up.
“Cade’s been spotted,” he says as he strides into the suite, stopping dead in his tracks when he sees me. And there it is, finally. The desire I have pushed to get is burning brightly in his eyes and doesn’t go unnoticed by my highly irate sire. So, all of this time I was flashing my bits at him, when what he wanted was this. He clearly has a thing for 15th century Italian women, I note with an inward high-five to myself. I must look smug as CK barks, “Nico!” and the shutters close again as he clears his throat.
“Aefre, go and wait in the bedroom,” he orders me, but I shake my head.
“No, if it’s about Cade. I’m staying.”
He glares at my defiance, but I stand my ground. If I am going to meet in secret with him, I need to know what Nico knows.
Nico turns his back to me and addresses only his boss, “One of my team spotted him in the casino earlier, talking to someone on his phone.”
I try not to look guilty as he was talking to me.
“We tried to follow him back to wherever he’s staying, but he disappeared. He is good, I’ll give him that,” he says grudgingly.
“That’s it? That’s all you have to tell me?” CK snaps. “It’s not good enough. I want his head on a platter; don’t bother me again unless that is what you are bringing me.” He is in a right temper now, mad at Nico and probably me as well knowing him. I sigh. So much for our happy time.
“Yes, sir,” Nico bobs his head and without a second glance at me, beats a hasty retreat lest it be his head on a platter.
CK shifts his furious gaze to me and I stare innocently back. After all, it’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything to cause such a reaction from his employee. Had I stripped off naked and given him a lap dance, sure I’d take the blame, but not for this. I couldn’t be more covered up if I tried.
“You need to Shift,” he growls at me, “into a beast so hideous that people run from you.”
I let out a loud guffaw. I think I can honestly say, I have never in all of my life laughed as hard, or for as long, as I do at that comment. I am bent over double trying to catch my breath in between bouts of mirth that leave my stomach aching. Every time I sober up, I look at him and his slightly amused expression and it starts all over again.
“A beast so hideous that people run from me?” I snort, slapping my thigh as more laughter bubbles up. “And what about you? Would you run?”
“Well, that depends on what you looked like,” he says with a laugh of his own. “Christ, Aefre, I just can’t seem to catch a break with you. If it’s not one man, it’s another. You truly are a Helen of Troy.”
I stop laughing then and just look at him, his words warming me inside. “You always know the right thing to say,” I say shyly.
He crosses over to me slowly. “I’m sure that even as a beast you would still have too many suitors. There is just something about you that draws men in. When we are married, I am going to have to lock you away so I can have you all to myself.�
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My breath hitches in my throat at the mild threat and his eyes harden as he says, “Now that was completely the wrong thing to say. I apologize. You know I would never do that to you?” It is a question, an uncertain one.
“I do know that,” I say reassuringly, and he looks relieved.
“That was you that Cade was talking to, wasn’t it?” he asks, catching me off guard with a tactic that he is renowned for. He gives you no warning of the topic and he just slips it into the conversation, so you have no defenses up.
“Yes,” I admit, not wanting to lie any more than I have to.
“I see. And what were you talking about?”
Oh, screw this. I am sick of secrets, in for a penny and all that. “He wants to meet me, in private. He has something he wants to discuss with me.”
“And you were going to go?”
“Yes. He says he has no interest in killing me. Not anymore.”
“You believe him? It’s what he does, Aefre. It’s not just a job to him, it’s his birthright.”
“I know all that, but I do believe him.”
“He has already tried to hurt you.”
“He admitted that he was mostly sure that I would be okay.”
“Mostly sure?” he yells at me suddenly, making me jump as we have thus far been discussing this in normal tones.
“Well, I admit those odds don’t sound very reassuring,” I say calmly, “but I am sure that he can’t kill me. He is a Vampire Hunter and I am not altogether a Vampire anymore. More so after today,” I add and then regret those words as his eyes pin mine in fury.
“You aren’t going,” he says shortly.
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you aren’t. End of story. This isn’t a discussion, Aefre,” he says all sire-like, but tough shit, as he can’t pull that crap on me anymore.
“No, it isn’t. You get no say in whether I go or not.”
He hisses at me and moves closer. “Do not defy me.”
This time last year, I would be quaking in my Louboutins had he spoken to me like that but now I just glare at him. “I am going to hear what he has to say and that, my dear, is the end of the story.”
For a long time, he just glares at me and then as ever with the abrupt mood shift, he shrugs and says, “Fine. Do not come crying to me when he kills you.”
“I won’t,” I say haughtily.
“I preferred it when you did what you were told. You are not acting in the way I asked you to.”
I smile slowly at him. “I apologize, sir,” I say with a slight curtsy. I don’t want to fight with him, so I do as he asks and turn on ‘Aefre’. “Please punish me as you see fit for my disobedience,” I continue, baiting him with those words, but it’s what he wants to hear, so I say them, hoping he won’t be an arse and use it against me.
He returns my slow smile with a wicked one of his own, his eyes on fire at my words, “There, that’s better,” he says quietly. “An acceptable way to talk to your sire.”
I lower my eyes demurely and he breathes in deeply. He has me right where he wants me but there again, so do I. He is this close to coming undone and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
He saunters slowly closer to me until he is standing right in front of me. He lifts my chin up, forcing my eyes to his. I quiver at the small amount of contact with him. He slowly lowers his head to kiss me softly before he asks, “How much do you want me?”
“To the ends of the Earth, my love,” I whisper.
He smiles at my words said so long ago. “Even after all this time, you still want me that much?”
“Are you saying you don’t want me that much?” I smile and his eyes light up.
“Oh, Aefre, I want you to the ends of the world and back,” he whispers before he plunges his tongue into my mouth. I pull him to me, desperate to have him closer.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY
“I need you,” I whisper against his lips. “I need you inside me.”
He pulls me back towards the sofa, hands desperately pulling up the voluminous folds of the gown. He finds my flesh and kneads my thighs, pinching his way up to my backside. He sits, pulling me down with him, and I have a horrible flashback of the last time I was on this sofa in this position. I push the memory aside and concentrate on getting him out of his clothes. He struggles out of his jacket and I pull on his tie to undo it, tossing it aside quickly to get to work on his shirt. I want to feel him, feel his skin against mine. I want to rake my claws across his chest and drink from him. I Shift and slice easily through his shirt, not caring that it probably cost him a fortune and rip it off him.
“Get rid of the gown,” he growls desperately.
It’s gone in a second and he drags me, unencumbered, to him. I can feel his stiff cock pushing against me through his pants and I grind down on him causing him to groan.
He lets go of me long enough to free his cock but then his hands are back on me.
“I want you now,” he says.
I don’t need asking twice as I rise up and thrust down onto him, encasing him in my wet heat.
“So wet,” he murmurs. “I wish we were human so I could feel how hot you are. So, you could feel me.”
His words give me slight pause. It’s the oddest thing for him to say. But there again, he has been saying odd things for a while now. I think no more of it as I ride him and he clamps his fangs down on my neck to feed. I am burning with desire but push it away as I want him to make me orgasm in another way. I hope the longer I delay coming, the more likely he is to give it to me. It has been forever since he did it, back in the orgy room when the four of us were still playing nice.
He releases the bite and says hungrily, “You’re going to make me work for it tonight, aren’t you?” His eyes are pitch black and full of lust.
“You know what I want,” I whisper and his eyes flash. An unspoken rule of never asking for it, only letting him choose to give it to me. But rules are being broken all over the place lately, so fuck it. What’s one more? I know he will do it, but he will make me pay first. With me still riding him slowly, he drags just one claw down my chest in between my breasts and I squirm against the sting, raking my own claws down his back. He drags his tongue back up the gash and I am about ready to explode with holding onto my orgasm.
He delicately circles a bloody cut around my nipple, and he swipes his tongue around that, licking me until it heals. I am in pure ecstasy. He moves his mouth over the aching peak and licks me, breathing on me softly, causing me to arch my back to push myself further against his mouth. He must Shift back then, as he nips at me with his regular teeth and I growl in frustration. “Fuck, Constantine. You are driving me crazy.”
“No one is stopping you from letting go, Aefre. In fact, I would prefer it if you did,” he says matter-of-factly. All it does is make me even more resolved to make him work for it now. Talk about cutting my nose off to spite my face, stubborn fool that I am. I pull up off his dick and it is his turn to growl at me now that he is no longer inside me. “Don’t play games with me, Aefre.”
“Give me what I want,” I say, bold now in the face of my own idiocy.
He flips us over, so my back is on the sofa and he thrusts into me, long and hard, pinning me in place. I wrap my legs around him as who am I kidding? I can’t hold out for him anymore than he can for me.
“Don’t do that again,” he says as he speeds up, pounding my pussy, forcing my orgasm to the surface once again.
Oh, Christ, I want to let go but I don’t. I think of every distasteful thing that I can to douse the fire burning inside me. Well, I definitely learned from the best on how to be a stubborn idiot as he continues to grind into me but goes nowhere near where I want him to be. He is rock-hard inside me and pulsing in and out against the right spot with alarming accuracy. When I do finally let go, it will more than likely be mind-blowing, in the literal sense, but at least I will die a happy girl.
“You are a stubborn little thing,” he whispers to me. “I
will make you see the error of your ways.” He withdraws his cock and sits down again, pulling me onto him, facing outwards. Now, I know he isn’t going to give me what I want because he can’t reach it. Fucking infuriating Vampire. He lifts me up and impales me on his hard shaft, my dripping wet pussy aching to clench around him. I cry out despite myself. He reaches around me with one hand to play with my nipple, the other going to my clit. I am absolutely soaking wet. I wonder how much longer he can last. I move over him, wanting to bring him to his knees as I continue to think about horrible things. An image of Devon fucking that girl enters my head and completely distracts me long enough to push the rush of desire away.
“Fuck, Aefre. You are killing me,” he mutters. “I want to feel you throbbing against me. I want to know how good I make you feel.”
Crap, his words are undoing me, and I know that’s his game. “Oh, baby,” I moan as he drops his fangs into my neck again.
In the end, I lose it. I can’t contain it anymore. The rush comes, thundering over me making my blood race through my veins as I come so loudly and so forcefully around him, I think the whole hotel must have heard and felt it. He purrs as my ecstasy floods his mouth through my blood and the vibrations set me off again. He releases the bite and in a move so sudden, I don’t know how he did it, he turns me around to face him, ramming me back down onto his cock as I’m still throbbing away, and he clamps down on my nipple with his fangs sinking in. I am so completely lost in the next wave of my multiple orgasm, I really do just want to die because everything after this is going to be a severe anti-climax.
Pardon the pun.
He pulls back and breathes, “Fuck, Aefre,” before he kisses me and unloads his spunk inside me with his own forceful orgasm that goes on and on.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE
I rest my forehead on his. We are both breathing heavily and dripping with sweat.