Unsurprisingly, with Kenton, everything changed. As he moved in and out, Alessandra couldn’t have cared less about climaxing. She willed him to keep going, every thrust a further claim, and one she’d gladly allow him. When he reached back to grab a fistful of her hair, she sucked in a breath of anticipation, expecting him to pull it back.
But he didn’t . . . and then she realized what he was doing. Guiding her head to the side, he exposed the right side of her neck. He was watching her, waiting for her to stop him.
She didn’t.
His movements slowed, but Kenton was still buried deep within her, where he belonged. As he opened his mouth, his fangs appeared from nowhere, just as they had done that first time. Without thinking, she reached up to touch one, Kenton opening his mouth wider to accommodate her.
Without missing a beat, Kenton circled his hips over her just as she felt the sharp tip of a fang beneath her fingertip.
Alessandra waited for the fear to come, but it never did. Reaching behind his neck, she encouraged his head toward her. And just like that, Kenton sank his teeth into her neck, the sensation no more painful than the slight pressure of a fingernail against the skin.
Then it started. A sensation like the first onset of an orgasm. From her neck down to her gut, it was as if her blood had turned to bright purple liquid sent down from the skies.
Holy shit indeed.
She simply couldn’t take it.
The sight of his head buried against her neck, the feel of his hard cock deep inside her, the movements he’d never stopped making, circling and pumping simultaneously . . .
Alessandra let go, willing Kenton to do the same. His head lifted from her, a slight trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. He licked his lips and opened his mouth as if to retract his fangs. She shook her head at the same time as the clenching intensified.
Understanding, he lowered his mouth to hers. There was only a faint metallic taste. Her tongue darted over the sharp points as they kissed. Shaking, Alessandra didn’t even attempt to calm her racing heartbeat as she exploded, every muscle in her body making itself known. Kenton ripped his mouth from hers and threw his head back with a primeval roar that should have scared her.
Instead, she clawed at his back, silently begging him not to move. She could feel him release within her, and finally, as her body once again became her own, Alessandra went limp. Stretched her arms out on the bed and simply lay there.
Pulling out of her, Kenton did the same.
They stayed that way for God knows how long. It wasn’t as if words would be adequate at this moment anyway. She didn’t have enough of them in her vocabulary, including the many curses she’d picked up from her brother’s friends, to utter appropriate ones right now.
This kind of connection, of pleasure, it couldn’t be . . . normal.
“So . . . it’s true,” Kenton finally said next to her.
He rolled toward her and propped his head in his hand. How could he find the strength to move?
He didn’t actually expect her to speak right now . . .
“They say the pleasure of a bite is intensified with a Cheld.”
She had the energy to roll her head to the side to look at him, but nothing more.
“Do they now?”
His wickedly handsome smile made her want to reach out and touch him. Maybe once she could lift her arms again.
“As you can imagine, I’ve never tested the theory.”
“I have no words.”
His deep-throated laughter settled into her chest, a pleasant guest she’d never ask to leave.
“The bite—”
“Is much the same feeling for you and me, or so I’m told.” Still smiling, he said, “Although, as I said, the feeling is apparently intensified because of who you are.”
“So that . . .” she did lift her arm now, weakly gesturing toward their naked bodies, “. . . that is normal?”
He’d already begun shaking his head before she finished.
“Nothing about what just happened is normal, my love. Not for a vampire. Not for a Cheld. Not even for two people madly and passionately in love.”
That was enough to have her reach out to him.
Kenton pulled her close, tucking her next to his body like a warm winter coat on a freezing day. She could get used to this.
“For the record, you can bite me anytime you’d like,” she said, looking up.
“Duly noted,” Kenton said, leaning down to kiss the tip of her nose.
If he looked even slightly disconcerted, she told herself it was because their evening had been so intense. Both of them had been well-pleased. And yet . . . why did his smile have the slightest tinge of sadness?
You’re imagining it.
Everything he’d said to her that night . . . Alessandra’s ability was slightly different from her brother’s, and yet she didn’t doubt the sincerity of Kenton’s words. He loved her. Hell, he was even willing to stay here for her. There’s nothing to worry about anymore, her sleepy mind said.
Nothing at all . . .
Was that a knock on the door?
Kenton could not remember sleeping so soundly before. His sense of sound, usually more than adequate, should have alerted him to Mary’s presence well before she rapped on his bedroom door. But when he opened it in nothing more than a pair of hastily donned boxers, Mary didn’t even flinch. He’d come to rely on and appreciate her professionalism.
Except when it led him away from the very comfortable bed where the woman he loved lay tangled up in the sheets.
“Pardon, Mr. Morley, but there’s a woman at the door who insists on seeing Miss Alessandra.”
Not Laria, he would have been able to sense her.
“Is her name Toni?”
“Yes, sir. It is.”
“I will be right there.”
He considered waking Alessandra but then decided against it. Before dressing, he watched for a moment as her chest rose and fell, savoring the fact that she lay in his bed. Then he pulled on a pair of pants and a shirt and made his way downstairs.
Toni sat in the drawing room, her hands folded neatly on her lap. Demure for a woman who more often resembled a tiger than a house cat. Alessandra and her friend were alike in many ways. They’d found a solid match in each other.
“Good morning,” he said, striding into the room. “What can I get you to drink?”
“At seven in the morning?”
“I meant tea,” he said, remembering she and Alessandra had the same predilection for it.
“Oh, sure. Thanks.”
He left the room to pass their request for drinks along to Mary, then made his way back to the drawing room. Toni was jostling her knee when he returned, seeming to have a difficult time sitting still on his couch.
“So what can I do for you?” he asked, well aware she was not here to see him. He’d have some fun with this . . .
“Ah, well . . . I came to check on Alessandra, actually.”
“What do you suppose happened to her?” he asked in the most mischievous voice he could muster.
Toni’s eyes widened. “You tell me.”
Chuckling, he sat down across from her.
“I don’t kiss and tell,” he teased, amazed the words had actually come from his mouth. It was something he would have said before the change. That is, if such an expression had been available to him at the time.
Alessandra had affected him in more ways than he’d thought possible.
“I’m not asking about that.” Toni sighed audibly, watching the door for either her tea or to ensure she had an escape route. “Is she—”
She swallowed.
“Alive?”
It was cruel to tease her, especially after she’d been such a help to him, but Kenton simply couldn’t resist. He felt invigorated this morning, better even than when he’d received his spurs and become a knight. For many years that had been his fondest memory, the simple but important event a turning point for him. It had bee
n the first time his father saw him as a man and not a boy. The first time he’d spoken about Kenton becoming the next earl. Though he was the heir by birth, the two had never discussed it before that day.
Mary shuffled into the room, delivering a cup of tea to Toni and a coffee to him. He needed to give the woman a raise.
Remembering Alessandra was quite fond of her friend, Kenton finally relented in his teasing.
“I can assure you Alessandra is safe, sleeping soundly upstairs as we speak.”
And I love that you came here to check on her.
Her shoulders lifted slightly, as if an enormous weight had been taken off them. “I figured as much when she didn’t come home, but it’s not like Alessandra to forget to text.”
“She was—” he reached for the coffee cup, “—otherwise occupied.” Taking a sip, he continued, “Thank you for your help in getting her there last night.”
Toni looked at him as if she were a scientist and Kenton, a newly discovered specimen.
“You broke her heart,” she said, “and I’d hoped you could put it back together.”
His chest tightened at her words.
He would make it up to her, no matter how long it took.
“Our circumstances are . . . complicated.”
Toni appeared to consider that. “I won’t argue with you there,” she said. “But you should know Alessandra values loyalty above all else.” She sipped her tea. “She’s quick to befriend just about anyone, you know, and she gets burned for it sometimes. Last year, a new teacher was moved into the classroom next to hers. Alessandra showed her the ropes, invited her out with us . . . took her under her wing, so to speak.”
He frowned, not liking where this was headed.
“One day during her planning period, she left the room to make some copies and heard her name. Dropping back, she stood outside the door and listened as the new girl proceeded to tell one of their colleagues that although Alessandra was nice enough, her personality was ‘too strong,’ and she needed to be brought down a peg.”
Rage tightened his hand on the coffee cup, sending a hairline fracture down its length.
“What did she do?” he finally asked.
“Nothing. That’s my point. She stopped spending time with her outside of school, of course, but she was as pleasant to her as ever. Eventually the new girl got the hint and asked Alessandra if she’d done something to upset her. A guilty conscience, perhaps?”
Now Toni was upset.
“Like I said, she gets burned sometimes for being naive, especially about people’s basic nature. But she’s also a quick study. After she overheard that, the girl was dead to her, and good riddance.”
They sat there for a moment, each drinking their beverage, and then Toni set down her tea. “Anyway, I have to get to work. I just wanted to be sure Alessandra was okay.”
As he stood with her, it struck him that she’d taken his word for it. She hadn’t insisted on seeing her friend. “How do you know I’m not lying, that she is indeed sleeping soundly in my bed?”
“I said she was naive, not stupid. Alessandra wouldn’t have come here with you if she didn’t trust you.”
Toni was halfway to the front door when Kenton stopped her.
“Thank you,” he said again, wanting to repay her but not knowing how just yet.
Toni shrugged. “My pleasure.”
She left him standing in the hallway, looking at a table that still contained brochures about the town. If he stayed here, Kenton would need to make this place less inn and more home. Rowan and Drake.
Alessandra values loyalty above all else.
Well, they would have no problem there. She’d won his loyalty, though it had not been an easy battle. There was no going back now, nor did he want to in the least.
What about the other Cheld?
Sinking into a chair—he didn’t even remember walking into the red room—Kenton allowed his mind to wander to the one thing that had been plaguing him all night.
You can’t have it both ways, Lawrence had said.
And he was right.
Could he really make a life with Alessandra and then, when the time came, leave her to kill the next Cheld? A man or woman who was related to her, however distantly, and had the same powerful blood running through their veins?
And what of his brothers? Rowan already hated him, and Drake probably already knew, would say he’d forsaken their parents’ memory and placed them all in danger because of a woman.
But she wasn’t just any woman.
Kenton stood and made his way up the stairs.
When his hand landed on the doorknob, an unfamiliar feeling assaulted him, an unease that started in his gut and made its way into his chest, settling there like an overly large meal. Kenton suddenly knew what he had to do, but that didn’t mean it would be easy. After last night, he really had no other choice. Letting his hand drop, he turned from the room and walked away.
Alessandra turned the bracelet around and around on her wrist. How was it possible something so simple could contain so much power?
Her father’s satchel could not be a coincidence.
Having already dressed, she grabbed her purse, shoving her phone inside. She’d already checked it, reading through the cryptic—talk later—text from Kenton and seeing the roughly one thousand missed calls from Toni. She walked downstairs and stopped in her tracks when she spied the dining room.
Was he serious?
The center of the table was covered in an array of fruit and pastries, although Kenton was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you hungry, Miss Alessandra?”
Mary stood beside her, looking at the exorbitant, and entirely unnecessary, display.
“Are we feeding the entire town this morning?”
Mary smiled, a kindly smile free of censure. Even so, she thought it might be a bit creepy to have a full-time housekeeper.
“Just you,” Mary confirmed.
She walked inside the room. “Where did he get all of this?” she asked, picking up a grape.
“Delivered just a few minutes ago,” Mary answered. “There’s a pot of tea waiting for you as well. Will you require anything else, Miss—”
“Just Alessandra, please.”
She couldn’t take the formality.
Mary smiled. “Alessandra?”
“No, thank you.”
Wandering through the stuffy old room, its ornate furnishings making her slightly uncomfortable, she perched herself on the edge of an upholstered chair. For someone who loved history, antiques had never really been her thing. Looking at them was fine, but living among them . . . not so much. Too many of them were dusty and uncomfortable.
Of course there were copies of every major newspaper on the table. Did people really still read those things? She picked up a local paper and tried to concentrate on the words as she nibbled on a blueberry muffin.
Just the top. She had no use for anything besides the bits with the caked-on sugar melding with blueberries that still oozed they were so fresh.
She took her phone out and called Toni, putting her friend on speaker while she added sugar to her tea.
“Hey, you called?”
Toni laughed at the understatement of the year. “Just once or twice. When I didn’t hear back, I came up there—”
“Up here? When?”
“This morning.”
Alessandra looked around as if her friend were hidden behind a potted plant.
“You did?”
A cash register’s ding told Alessandra what she’d already suspected. Toni was back at work.
“Yep.”
“And?”
“And nothing. Kenton assured me you were fine, I believed him, and I came to work. Good times.”
“You saw Kenton?”
“Hold on.”
While Toni tended to a customer, an early one considering it was a weekday, Alessandra helped herself to another bite of muffin, vowing to get in a run later in the day.
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“OK, so yeah, I saw him. Didn’t you?”
She finished chewing. “No, he was gone when I woke up.”
“Gone where?”
Good question, though Alessandra had a feeling he wasn’t the kind of guy who was used to checking in.
“I have no idea.”
Silence.
“I’m heading home in a bit. Hey, did you eat breakfast? Because if not, I’ve got a real treat for you.”
“Hold on a sec—”
“No, you go ahead. I’ll stop by.”
She hung up, saving Toni from having to talk to her with a customer at her counter. If she could just find something to carry some of this food in—
Something was happening.
Alessandra didn’t know what, or even where yet, but she could sense . . . something.
Danger?
No. This awareness was entirely different than anything she’d felt up until now. This wasn’t the presence of a vampire or, thank goodness, someone wishing to do her harm. This felt almost like she’d just stepped into the spa, the calm of running water and soothing tones slowing her heartbeat. The draw was absolutely undeniable.
The doggie bag forgotten, she ran to the door and let herself out onto the front patio. Alessandra closed her eyes, letting her senses guide her, and then opened them again. She almost gasped when she found herself staring at Lawrence’s house. It was over there. Whatever was happening was over there.
She didn’t think twice. Acting on instinct, she ran down the stairs and across the short distance between what had once been the path between father and daughter.
She knocked on the door, but when no one answered, she did not hesitate to consider the consequences of breaking and entering into the home of two of the oldest vampires in existence. Whatever was happening was in the back of the house, on this floor, and Alessandra didn’t stop until she reached the entranceway of an even more ornate parlor than the one she’d just left.
Alessandra froze, gasping at the sight before her.
It couldn’t be.
Chapter 25
None of them even glanced her way, although Alessandra was certain they knew she was present. They were vampires, after all, and she hadn’t attempted to be stealthy.
The Vampire's Temptation Page 20