His Dark Embrace

by Verika Sloane

  She wanted to cry. Nya lay down in her mind’s eye, content.

  Nothing else needed to be said.

  With a quiet joy, she grasped his face, and they kissed, urgency and wildness exploding inside her.

  His mouth dragged down the slope of her throat, the tips of his sharp teeth grazing her, exciting her beyond reason. He kissed his way down her chest, and when he tugged her demi-bra down and captured her nipple between his teeth just right, a bolt of desire shot to her pussy, a rush of liquid soaking between her folds.

  The little sound she made was a mix of surrender and wordless begging. More of that. And he obeyed, dragging his mouth to the other breast, licking over the lace, eliciting it to harden, before he moaned and unhooked it.

  Dazed, she found herself guided to the bedpost, her hands set high as his palms slid down her arms, over her breasts, his thumbs circling the wet peaks. Why was she panting already? He’d barely begun. She groaned and arched her back while Shain went to a knee, his hands slow over her ribs, her hips.

  He pressed kisses across her lower abdomen, guiding her panties down, lifting her feet one by one.

  “My shiya,” he whispered reverently, running his hands along her thighs, kissing her with tenderness, taking his time, while her sex ached for attention.

  Shain hooked her leg on his shoulder with care, his mouth starting at the side of her knee, grazing her inner thigh. Shain drew in a breath, taking in her arousal, brushing his nose over her damp curls below.

  The second his tongue touched her pussy, she gave a soft cry, trying to keep from collapsing, while he licked from the bottom of her center, through it, and ending with a little suck on her clit.

  Kimber’s pleasure-groan was true shamelessness.

  He did it again. Licking her slowly, burying his face even more, his brief moans giving soft vibrations on the delicate skin, shooting jolts of sensation like mini strikes of lightning.

  Pretty soon her legs would give out. But she held on as best as she could to the post, gently bucking her hips in rhythm with his mouth. Shain was in no hurry. She looked down, watching his head moving like a figure eight between her thighs. Blunt pangs in her pussy foretold the unstoppable rush was on its way. Kimber’s arms went limp, unable to hold on to the bedpost any longer, and she rested one hand atop his head.

  Shain knew she was about to come, and continued lavishing on her pulsing sex while her thighs quivered in oncoming ecstasy. Her cries built in her chest until stopping them wasn’t an option, her mouth opening, her eyes closing, crying out as the orgasm detonated. The cry was deep and loud. Both hands clenched Shain’s hair as she rode her pussy along his mouth.

  She barely had time to come down from her high before he licked up her torso and caught her in his arms.

  The next thing she felt was cool bedsheets on her back, her taste on his lips, his tongue winding around hers while she parted her thighs for him.

  The tip of his cock was so close, and she was so wet, she knew he’d slide in with little to no effort. Yet, he continued to roam a hand along her outer thigh, up her waist, and captured her hand in his, linking their fingers.

  “Shain.” It came out pitiful. A plea. A beg.

  There was no way she could experience more sensation, be more ready, than she was.

  Right?

  “I know, I know,” he murmured. “But I’m big, sweetheart. I don’t want it to hurt.”

  She gave a mewling sound. “It won’t.” She bucked her hips, sliding her pussy along his shaft, her knees bent farther back.

  Shain hissed and exhaled at her physical encouragement, moving his hips with hers, his engorged cock rubbing between her soaked folds. A shudder from him, his hand briefly squeezing hers tight, and she knew he couldn’t wait either.

  He looked into her eyes, body relaxing, settling, his cock seeming to naturally find her entrance. A tender kiss. Then he moved their hands to just above her head, and used his other hand to hold her hip.

  He tried to enter her with care, but she was so wet, so aroused, one small push was all it took, and he fully sank inside her, deep and hard. Whether he could’ve helped it didn’t matter.

  Stunned, Kimber tightened like a bow at the sudden penetration. Shain’s cry against her mouth sounded like surprise, apology, and ecstasy all in one. He didn’t move, dropping his head to her shoulder, his free hand sliding under her neck.

  Almost as quickly as the pain ignited, it subsided. By pleasure, fulfillment, need. Kimber turned her head to seek his mouth, and he latched on, moaning in relief when she began to thrust her hips up. He met her efforts at once, a beautiful sync of sweet coupling.

  Thunder rumbled, patters of rain on the windows followed. Kimber gasped with a growl, clenching her nails in his hard shoulder blades, a brief tremor running through her.

  Shain bowed his head, choking out “gods” before squeezing his eyes shut. His teeth were full grown now. “Kimber…” He misinterpreted her glance at his sharp canines. “Oh, darling, I would never…”

  She traced her fingertips gently over his mouth and touched the sharp tip of his tooth. Shain hissed and roved his hips toward her, then partly drew out of her when she gave a sharp intake of breath.

  “It’s okay,” she breathed, arching.

  Shain’s eyes filled. “No.” He kissed her with ardor, and she sensed he was desperate not to cut her. What he didn’t seem to see was that part of her wanted him to draw blood. He’d enjoy that, wouldn’t he? And she longed to give him whatever he wanted from her.

  The pleasure overwhelmed her too much to make a play for him to try.

  Kimber closed her eyes as the vampire she loved rocked inside her, slow, going deeper as her pussy clutched at his iron girth, clenching and releasing with every thrust. It felt so good, she could’ve wept.

  A tingle in her fingertips went ignored until she was awoken out of her ecstasy by the familiar sensation of nails coming out of her skin.

  Nya’s arousing grr in her mind made her open her eyes.

  What was happening?

  The claws slowly jutted from her fingertips. Though she tried to hold her wolf’s power down, her lustful, weakened state proved insufficient to put up a fight.

  She wasn’t shifting; it was something else.

  Something else, but parallel, as she could feel the same animalistic instincts powering through her veins.

  She opened her mouth, said his name, but he didn’t respond. Kimber wasn’t sure if she’d actually spoken it or just said it inside her mind.

  With her right hand, she pressed the middle of his back to hold on while her vision gradually turned from color to black-and-white. Her throat closed from speech, though she could breathe just fine.

  Nya, what are you doing?

  No response.

  Voice locked while Shain pumped inside her, Kimber turned her head away, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again, but still no color. Shain grazed his lips on her neck, unaware.

  When she could exhale, it was raw and wolflike, all animal.

  “Kimber?”

  “I…”

  A blast from the base of her spine to the back of her head blinded her and she cried out. She slapped her hand on Shain’s back, digging her nails in his flesh, scoring her claws from shoulder to hip, ripping his skin open.

  Shain yelled and threw back his head. With a snarl, he grabbed her wrist and slammed it to the floor, eyes wild. He heaved in confusion as blood traveled down his side.

  Kimber stared back at him, unapologetic, her chest rising and falling. The violent slash felt good, uncontrollable, and for some reason, she’d done it.

  A strange look came over his handsome face as he released his hold on her wrist by degrees, driving his hips again, harder.

  “Ngh!” was the only sound she could make.

  She clung to him, using both hands to hold his jaw, sending her hips up to meet his, biting harmlessly into his shoulder while they fucked.

  He gathered her close. A whi
mper from him nearly broke her as he dipped his face in the crook of her neck. Only when he moved away to kiss her shoulder did she feel a wetness on her neck, and it wasn’t sweat. She pushed him back until he looked at her, more tears slipping from her eyes when she saw the watery emotion gathered in his. He kissed her lips, and Kimber silently wept while Shain made love to her, the bliss more than she could bear.

  Fast, powerful thrusts, then slow, hard ones.

  The tempo made Kimber’s eyes roll back. Another climax building. His name came out quiet, increasing in volume.

  He cupped her knee, driving into her with measured strokes. “Yes, yes. Oh, gods.”

  Her thoughts exactly, and was determined to make him come with her, wanting to witness it. Matching his rhythm, she bucked faster. His body tightened, his jaw clenching as he shook.

  The white-hot explosion inside bowed her body into his and waved on, her pussy pulsing and milking him. Seconds after, Shain locked his gaze with hers, pulled out, then in, out and in, before groaning with his last thrust inside her.

  An involuntary tear slipped from her eye and disappeared in her hair.

  Shain saw it, closed his eyes, and kissed her eyebrows one by one.

  The curtains continued their dance with the winds of the storm. Some candles had gone out; the room was nearly dark. And there she was, so in love, in so deep, in her vampire’s arms. They shifted, her tucking in the crook of his arm, her head on his chest. Blood on her inner thigh smeared on his hip as she bent her leg and turned toward him.

  His blood, from her hand. Most of it had dried on them and the sheets.

  As she ran her palm down his torso with languid strokes, she flexed it twice, testing it.

  When a shifter found their true mate, and the relationship consummated, one of them would make a long, deep slash on their lover’s back during sex. Though the wound itself would disappear, it was a permanent, invisible mark of…claiming one’s mate.

  Yes, that was what she’d done to him.

  However powerless she might’ve been, she should explain herself.

  But how? He’d never believe her. Their feelings for each other aside, no matter what her wolf wanted, they still couldn’t be together. Not realistically. Besides, the mark was only to tell other shiyas to back off, and the chances of him meeting any were slim to none. There could be no other shiya in his future anyway, because he was hers.

  She stiffened at how possessively her thoughts had turned while her lover caught her wandering hand in his.

  “Everything okay?”

  I marked you, and I shouldn’t have. She sighed, nuzzling into his warm skin and scent. “More than okay.” Which was also true. “Aren’t you worried someone will catch us in here?”

  “Not at all. I own this house.”

  “What?” She gaped at him. “Impossible.”

  “I disagree. What’s impossible is getting years’ worth of dirt out of these wood floors, but I did what I could. Haven’t done manual labor like that in over a century. Quite humbling. And rewarding, actually.”

  “How could you buy it? Just like that?”

  “Things can happen fast with money. The realtor even cut me a deal since I paid cash.” He kissed her forehead. “The best real estate purchase I’ve made in years.”

  She smiled. “Why go through that, though? I would’ve met you anywhere.”

  His finger dragged along her jawline. “So we’d have a place to meet that was all ours. Far from…everyone.”

  Far from the underworld’s eyes and damnation.

  “So we can come here anytime we want,” she said.

  “Anytime. It’s all ours to sin within.”

  A brief laugh escaped. She gazed at him in awe. They had weeks together and then…and then…

  No, I won’t spoil this night thinking about that. Best to enjoy and live in the moment.

  Shain tugged her back to the present by examining her hand. “How about a shower?” he suggested with a nearly sympathetic glance at her bloody fingers.

  Seconds stretched while she stared at him. He still hadn’t asked what that violent scratch had been about. Did he already know and didn’t want to speak of it? Either way, she wouldn’t say anything unless he prompted her to. “As long as you shower with me.”

  A slow smile spread his lips.

  With his back to her in the dark bathroom, a panic bloomed. Suddenly, she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him in the morning, or him leaving her in the night. She didn’t want to let him go.

  The wound she’d scored in his flesh? Gone. Not a scratch. Not even any redness.

  The handle screeched while he turned on the water. He stepped in, and she watched the water pour over his head and amazing physique. His large hands ran over his face and smoothed back his hair. When he caught her staring, he smiled.

  “Come here.”

  He pulled her in, planting kisses on her cheek and working his way lower. She wrapped her arms around his neck, mind racing, coming to grips with what her heart and soul already knew.

  Shain was meant to be hers. Without question. She knew it, felt it.

  Now she knew what the mated pairs in her pack gushed about. Feelings of protectiveness. Vulnerability. Fear. Yet euphoria, gratitude, and completeness were swirling in, too.

  Holy shit. Her mate was not a wolf shifter, but a pürblood vampire. One that just achieved what no other pürblood had: an elite alliance. He was somebody in his world. A man his people paid attention to.

  They soaped one another, sharing a kiss here, there, rinsing the blood away. Her sex remained tender and sore, and although she ached to make love again, Shain convinced her to rest a little more first.

  He changed the sheets while she dried off. Nothing was more wonderful than crawling into bed with him, listening to the rain, touching each other. They talked and teased and made plans for the next week, not mentioning that, soon, she’d really be gone from his life.

  Deep in the night while he slept, she stared at him, afraid she’d go to sleep and wake up having dreamed the entire thing. Her wolf was at peace for the first time in a while. Another unmistakable sign everything was how it should be.

  The fact her mate was a vampire didn’t bother Kimber.

  It was like she’d known all along. It made sense, in a strange way. She’d never been like everyone else; why would her mate be like everyone else’s?

  The only thing that bothered her was, now that she’d found her mate, how she was she going to keep it a secret—or keep him at all?

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Saying goodbye to Kimber the next morning took more strength than Shain had been prepared to give. He had to leave before dawn, and she had to leave before her sisters sounded the alarm. She’d sent a text to Lucinda that she’d spent the night at her friend Stefan’s, but she still couldn’t spend the day with Shain in their rustic hideaway.

  Before sunrise, she’d awakened, closed the blackout curtains, and roused him with kisses and heavy-lidded want in her eyes.

  They made quiet, tender love under the covers, and he tried very hard not to draw in too much of the sexual energy to feed himself. He didn’t want to exhaust her. Her awareness of it? None, he’d been careful, drawing tiny inhales off her sensual, incandescent aura. It’d invigorated his every cell. If he wasn’t careful, he’d quickly become addicted to that, never mind her blood.

  As he pulled out of the bumpy driveway, a small smile formed.

  He was her first. Before, he’d resisted having that honor, but now, it was all his honor. Though her first time, she moved with him in sweet, natural unison right away, something that didn’t happen often, especially with a new lover. Rhythms were learned. Their tests and tastes. Not with Kimber. She’d been perfect.

  So perfect, in fact, he’d come close to sinking into her delectable neck, yearning to take blood from his exquisite shiya while their bodies united as one.

  She even said she wanted him to. She trusted him. Which was dangerous in a
nd of itself.

  Only a few miles from the house and he was struck with the urgency to turn around. Stay with her.

  His teeth came down, saliva filling his mouth, the discomfort powerful.

  He needed blood. Soon. It’d been two weeks since his last appointment with Sasha, and he was due. Plus, Kimber’s torrid scratch down his back had taken a lot of energy to heal. If she hadn’t done that, he would’ve had the energy to make love to her at least twice more before he left.

  Why she did it, he’d have to ask her; though, strangely, it’d kind of turned him on. He didn’t mix pain and pleasure, not into it, but he would if that was what she liked.

  A pang reminded him he couldn’t put off feeding.

  Sighing, he called Sasha. She agreed to come over immediately.

  Brooks called shortly after, and he answered.

  “Sir, I expect you’ll be in for the day soon. I noticed a bag had yet to be packed for your journey, so I took the liberty while you were out. I set out the proper tuxedo for tonight, along with the cufflinks you had repaired. The plane will be ready to leave promptly at eight.”

  Shain bit back a groan. What event?

  “Sir?” he asked after Shain didn’t readily respond.

  “Refresh my memory, Brooks. To what are you referring?”

  A pause. “The Night Jasmine Ball.”

  An engagement in New York. The only summer ball worth attending this time of year. Ordinarily, he’d be keen to go, to visit with friends in the northeast, check in on a property or two he owned, perhaps see a show, and have dinner with a politician or a famous actor.

  He’d have to sacrifice a night with Kimber for those things? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Just the thought of leaving her…

  “Decline, Brooks.”

  “Pardon?”

  His hunger multiplied as he drew nearer to the city limits, and he lurched forward from the pain in his stomach and cried out.

  “What was that? Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. I just need to feed.”

  Brooks’s concern was immediate. “Shall I contact Sasha?”