Shain’s sinister chuckle bounced through the woods. “I will catch you.”
I’m counting on it. Kimber peered around her latest hiding spot, frowning when she noticed her dress had caught on a branch. “At this point, you’ll only catch me when I let you.” She bent down and carefully pried the hem off the limb. “Have to say I thought you’d be better at this.”
Though she couldn’t see where he was, she heard him call, “You’ll find out soon enough what I’m best at.”
She laughed breathlessly, looked around for her next move, and stayed crouched while she snuck to the next tree.
It’d been too long since he’d touched her. She was starting to long for it and end this childish game. But not yet. She remained pressed against the tree, listening for his footsteps, waiting for him to taunt her again.
When a few moments went by without a sound, Kimber blinked, frowning.
She looked around the tree, over her right shoulder, then her left.
No Shain. No movement.
She closed her eyes and asked Nya to locate him.
A whine was her answer; her wolf didn’t know.
Quietly, Kimber emerged from her hiding spot, in plain sight. “Shain?”
A breeze fluttered through her dress.
“Behind you.”
She gasped, whipped around, only to have her legs lifted around his waist, and her back pushed against the oak.
His kiss of victory was brutal and deep-tongued as he entrapped her with his body. She moaned as they kissed with hunger, as if they’d been apart for more than the ten minutes that’d passed. When she felt an iron-like hardness pressing against her sex, her arousal burned hot and bright. She wanted him inside her. She wanted the ecstasy all these passionate moments were building up to.
As he dragged his mouth down her neck, he uttered, “Tell me.”
Tell him what? That she wanted him? Did he need her to say it out loud?
“Tell me what changed your mind.” He licked up her neck and grinned.
Oh, right. That. She almost laughed, having forgotten the point of her game. Looking at him, she ran her fingers down his handsome face, her rioting thoughts coming together. “You still want to know?”
“Yes. Give your captor his reward.”
She grinned, gazing at him for a few moments before responding. “It was your eyes. It wasn’t just desire. There was a sorrow in them, even though you were doing your best to be flirtatious, your eyes gave you away. Even in the dark, I saw your loneliness. Like recognizes like, I guess. And when I said, ‘I thought you were leaving,’ you looked at me as though…as though I’d broken your heart. For some reason, I couldn’t let you leave like that. And I changed my mind.”
The mirth in his eyes dimmed at the gravity of her answer. “I see.”
Did he also see she loved him? Didn’t her eyes give that away? Because she wasn’t trying to hide it.
He loosened his hold and let her feet touch the ground.
An awkwardness—at least for her—settled in the air.
Shain stepped back and started removing his shoes.
“What are you doing?” she asked with a smile.
Once they were off, he took her hand. “Come on, shiya. I want to run with you this time.”
“What?”
He pulled her with him into a full sprint. Grinning, she could keep up with him, but she hung back a little, letting him take the lead.
As they ran out of the woods toward the house, they didn’t slow, even when they were back on the grounds and nearing the pool.
When he looked back at her in a mischievous light, she couldn’t believe his intent. Was he really going to—?
Yes, he was.
She laughed a halfhearted protest. “No…no!”
“Yes. Yes!”
They were heading straight to the pool. “But Shain! My dress!”
Three more steps and she was still holding his hand as they jumped into the warm water.
She was just about to push up to the surface when Shain snatched her arm down and pressed his lips to hers, and they floated up together.
It was like a dream. One she didn’t want to end.
He was still kissing her when they surfaced, and she had to break off. “Not fair,” she said, pushing him away, only to be pulled right back. “I have to breathe at some point.”
Funny how she knew by the depth of his dimples how playful he was being. “All’s fair in the underworld, shiya. You can’t breathe underwater and I can’t tan.”
“Hardly fair. I’d drown if I was underwater too long.”
“And I’d burn if I was in the sun.”
“But the lack of a tan doesn’t put your life in danger.”
He wrapped her legs around him and swam them toward the shallow end. “Sure does give us away, though. Especially in the South.”
“Before I ever laid eyes on a vampire, I pictured your kind to look sickly, with hollow eyes and gross veins. But you’re…an attractive pale.”
“We can get sickly gray if we don’t feed on the regular.”
“Then you must feed like a champ, because you glow like the moon.”
He chuckled as he set her on the gradual slope leading out of the pool. “I do what I can to survive.”
“Wouldn’t you like to feed from me? A little?” she asked, now in a reclined position with only her heels at the water’s edge.
His smile faded. “There’d be no ‘little,’ Kimber. I don’t have the control of my bloodlust like Tanaka does. Mine has its limits.”
Why did she want him to take her blood? Why did she feel rejection because he refused to? Even though he’d explained twice now that a tiny taste of her could trigger his darkest greed, the yearning inside of her wouldn’t abate. More proof she was a freak of shifter nature. And human nature too, for that matter. What kind of woman wanted her own lifeblood sucked from her body?
Her drifting thoughts centered when Shain pushed the hem of her dress to her thighs and crawled between her legs. His lips came down to hers with a slow, controlled, searing kiss that reminded her the power of his sexuality could be overwhelming for her first time. For all she knew, he could be too aggressive or too assumptive, thinking she knew what to do to satisfy him.
And was there ever satisfying a man who had years of experience in seduction and sex, where she had very little of one and none of the other?
Shain drew back, whispering as he brushed his lips across hers, “There is something we can both experience that has no limits.”
“What’s that?”
“Pleasure.” He feathered more kisses around her mouth. “There is another way for me to feed on you.” His right hand scored over her outer thigh, tracing toward the inner. “I’ll show you.”
As he drew down to her parted legs, her mouth dropped open, a torrid heat filling her face as she looked around. “Shain,” she whispered fiercely. “Out here? Where anyone can see us?”
Like he would care. And he didn’t.
Kissing her inner thigh, he gently pried her wider until she was more exposed than she’d ever been. “No one will see us.” He looked up with a feral smile. “If you’re not quiet, they might hear you, though.”
Gently, he moved aside her wet thong, and Kimber was helpless to stop him. She wanted his mouth on her, out here underneath the stars, in wet clothes in the back of this amazing home.
When he looked at her again, his eyes glowed, as he found her clit and traced slow circles on it with the pad of his thumb. Kimber lifted her head with a gasp and rested back, nothing to grab onto.
He dipped his head next, and used some of her dress as cover, parting her folds more and giving a small lick. A pleased moan.
Kimber slapped her hand over her mouth to smother her cry. He was right. They’d hear her.
Shain lifted his head. “Gods, I love how you taste. The way your wet little curls feel around my mouth.” He resumed, fervently sucking her clit and licking her pussy as her eyes
watered from trying to stay quiet.
He made her come not once, but twice.
Afterward, he had to help her up, her bones useless.
Someone had discreetly left towels and robes that weren’t there before they’d jumped in. He helped her remove the dress, and she kept her back to him as she put the robe on, suddenly nervous. She occupied herself with folding the red dress while he undressed and put his own robe on.
“Leave it,” he whispered. He took her hand and drew her inside.
They were going to make love. And she wasn’t quite ready. “What about a glass of wine? Before we go upstairs?”
He slowed and turned toward her, smiling. “As you wish.”
While he went to retrieve the glasses and wine, Kimber wandered to the living room, leaning back on the wall on her hands, staring out the windows.
Tell him. Tell him.
Shain returned with a glass half full of red wine in each hand.
Her tremulous smile gave away her nervousness—she just knew it did—and she sought to cover it. “You know you have a knack for making my wishes come true. How many women can say they’ve seen a ballet, an opera, and an illusionist, all in one night, in one room?”
“I’m pleased you enjoyed the entertainment.”
She took a gulp of wine. “Did you really enjoy yourself? Or have you seen it all many times?”
His puzzled gaze traveled from her glass to her lips before he took a polite sip of his own wine. “I enjoyed it because you enjoyed it. And of course, I’ll always appreciate others’ talents. Just because I’ve seen many things before doesn’t numb my awe.”
She finished her wine. It was probably expensive, not to be swallowed like water, but her quick buzz relaxed her. “Hmm. What’s it like to be over two hundred. I’m burning to know.”
Shain took the empty glass from her hand and set it down. “I don’t know how to describe it.”
“Tell me what it’s like growing up as a vampire. Did you go to school? Any siblings? What are your parents like? Have you always lived here?”
He sat on the edge of the sofa arm. “I have one brother. Aleck. He’s two years older. Our personalities are…different, but not in a conflicting way. He’s reserved and private. Like most vampire children, we were homeschooled, as my parents were, and their parents were. To commit to having children, you have to commit to teaching them everything, every step of the way, if they’re to prosper. Occasionally, we’d get a visit from one of their friends who specialized in a particular subject. It helped break up the tedium.”
“All homeschooled? No science fairs? No school plays? No prom?”
“Our world has no need to parallel the humans’. Although, I had to learn the constellations, act out Shakespeare, explain the story, and we had socials to learn how to dance, to play instruments…” He finished his wine and set it down. “I can waltz like Astaire, but I can’t sing worth a damn. My brother can sing very well, and a girl I was once infatuated with liked him because of that talent. I was jealous as hell. I once poured a potion in his water before a concert and he couldn’t carry one note.”
She laughed. “What a mean brother you were!”
“It didn’t matter. The girl was even more enchanted.”
“When did you, you know, stop aging?”
“My maturation age was thirty-six.”
“Do vampires know when it happens?”
“Oh, yes.”
Kimber bent over, aghast. “Jealous. We never know. We just stop. There’s no definitive sign. Not even my wolf can tell.”
He cocked his head. “You always say ‘my wolf’ or ‘she,’ I’ve noticed. Does she have a name?”
“Of course, but I can’t tell you what it is.”
“Really? Why not?”
“I can’t tell anyone. Except my mate. He’s the only one who can know.”
Shain came toward her, moving a lock of damp hair from her chest to over her shoulder. “Is knowing her name a secret to your mind or something? If I found out, and said her name, would I unlock the ultimate power over you?” he joked.
She shook her head, smiling, her heart pounding at his nearness and touch. “It seals the bond. That’s why only my mate can know. Once he does, it’ll tie our lives even more.” But she didn’t want to speak of her faceless mate with Shain, and quickly changed the subject. “Our wolves don’t manifest until our eighteenth birthday.”
He brushed the tip of his nose along her jaw. “I didn’t know that.”
“Up until then, we’re basically no different from humans. I suppose that’s why we can go to public schools. A few here and there are homeschooled, but most parents have regular jobs and can’t afford to stay home. My wolf came to me on my seventeenth birthday, but I didn’t tell anyone until a year later.”
“Why?”
“The moment they know, they make you shift over and over, which is exhausting. And then shiefs may sniff you out. I wasn’t ready. If no one in your own pack is your true, shiefs from other packs are invited to come during the open gatherings to scent the single shiyas. I learned to shift and control her on my own so I’d be left alone for one more year.”
“The males come to your pack to sniff out the females that soon?” His lips grazed down her neck.
“The sooner you’re mated, the better.”
“Sounds like a lot of pressure at a young age.”
Her voice gave way to a whisper. “Finding a mate can take years. The pressure depends on the pack. No two are alike.”
“Hmm.”
Talking was done. The knot in her robe was undone and so was Kimber. She grasped the back of Shain’s head as he sucked her neck and licked down her chest. Once he captured a nipple, she cried out, eyes glazing over with desire.
If he made love to her right there against the wall, she wouldn’t care. Regardless when, how long, or where, it was going to be wonderful.
Nya nudged at her, but Kimber ignored it, blocking her out.
A rumble in and out of her ears distracted her as Shain kissed his way down her stomach, going to his knees.
It wasn’t until the lights started blinking in and out that Kimber came out of her haze to listen to her wolf for a moment.
What is it, Nya?
She opened her eyes, saw nothing, but heard car doors slamming and voices.
Multiple male voices.
The blood in her veins turned terrifyingly ice cold. “Shain,” she whispered.
Once she heard a door open, she gripped his shoulders hard, eyes wide.
“Trevyn,” a man called.
Shain shot up, eyes wide, gripping her upper arms, frozen in place.
One, two, three more voices were coming in the front door.
Oh, God. They had to be vampires. She couldn’t make a run for the stairs without crossing the foyer. What would these men do if they caught Shain with a shiya in his arms?
She covered her mouth from making even a breath of sound.
Like slow motion, she felt Shain’s hand pulling her, a closet door opening, and she blindly went inside.
Her knees buckled, and she went to the floor.
Shain held a finger to his lips. As if she needed to be reminded to stay silent.
She nodded, started shaking, and he closed the door.
What in all nine gods’ names was happening?
Shain snarled and tightened his robe.
Was that Markus’s voice? Nick’s laughter? Did Logan just whistle low?
Someone turned on the kitchen lights while Shain remained in the dark living room to compose himself. He pressed his forehead on the door he’d just closed on Kimber, cursing in silence, damning his allies to the Depths.
As long as she remained hidden, she was safe. The fact he had to hide her infuriated him like no other. Had she been a vampiress, it would’ve been nothing but an aggravation—
“Trevyn! You cannot possibly be asleep,” called Hale with his English accent.
He’d entertain them
for a few minutes. No more. Then he’d get rid of them.
The butler appeared from the staff quarters, rushing to put on his glasses when Shain held up a hand. “I’ll handle the surprise visitors myself. Go back to bed.”
The human nodded and returned to his room.
Sighing, Shain straightened, masked his fury and walked to the open front door.
He closed it and Nick came out from the kitchen, a bottle of champagne in hand. “There he is. The pürblood of the century!”
“What the hell are you guys doing here?”
“Well, elated to see you too!” Nick slapped his shoulder. “What the hell are you doing here, hashtag-isolated, when you should be celebrating the fuck out of your alliance with Tanaka?”
They walked to the kitchen together. Markus, Logan, and Hale cheered in unison as Shain entered, raising their glasses and giving congratulations.
“Trevyn! You magnificent beast.”
“I never doubted you’d catch that whale. Cheers.”
“Happy for you, Shain. As happy as I am shamelessly jealous.”
He forced a smile, a small part of it genuine. These men were the closest he had to friendships. They couldn’t know he’d been about to bed a shiya; that he’d rather be in a closet hiding with her than out here socializing with them.
“Thank you,” he said, accepting a glass of scotch from Hale. He raised it, then swallowed it whole, to their voiced disappointment.
“Slow down, my friend,” Logan admonished. “We’re not trying to black out this early.”
Shain set the glass down hard. He’d turned off his cell phone on purpose. “How did you find out about Tanaka? It literally happened twenty-four hours ago. I haven’t even given him my blood signature.” No way would Brooks have told anyone.
“Someone in his offices leaked it to the coven this morning,” Markus announced.
“And how did you find me?”
Markus shrugged. “Wasn’t that hard.”
“Fuck off it wasn’t,” Logan countered, pouring Shain another. “We’ve been on a mission, bribing every vampire host in the state. Once we knew you hadn’t flown somewhere, we deduced you were local. You know Brooks wouldn’t tell us if we threatened to cut off his tongue.”
His Dark Embrace Page 26