The hot sting sends a shiver down my entire leg and straight to my– “Motherfuckingdamnit.”
Is there anything more humiliating than a male slapping a female’s ass to get attention? Yeah. Silently acknowledging that you like it.
The Vampire snorts. “Your language is vile.”
Aroused by the spank, my feet stumble as I covertly handle my reaction. When did I give the signal that kind of behaviour is welcome? Was it the snarling or the kick to the ribs?
I’m seconds from jumping this gorgeous piece off ass and ravishing him. No. Gnawing him. I meant I’m seconds away from gnawing on him. Biting that strong throat and nibbling my way down his wide chest….
Dropping his arm, I hesitate to turn.
I’m breathing hard and unable to move because he’d catch my scent before it’s diluted by the wind. Standing here dwelling on it is making it worse.
Lord, what is wrong with me? The word ‘bitch’ should have set me raging, but it’s made me hot for him. It was the way he said it, silky and smooth. He almost complimented me with it as he expressed derision for my species.
Keep cool and show no fear. Dominance. I’ll have to strike back and do it with enough mean to regain the upper hand.
I spin, snarl, and take a menacing step forward. Well, as menacing as one can look in virginal lace. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’ve changed my mind. Hide me.”
“Are you high?”
He blinks. The upward curve of his lips transforms his demon’s face into something seraphic. “Are you?”
“Daddy will kill me. ”
Huffing and puffing, the Vampire lifts himself onto his elbows. “I’ll protect you.” This unreliable vow is said with a superior grin, as if it’s a deed of goodwill. “My corporeal prowess, intellect and savoir-faire will see you safe.”
Deep blue eyes wander over my body. Large pupils dilate then snap back. The predator tags his prey.
Prickles of heat flare on the back of my neck as his gaze lingers on the curve of my shoulder. “You seem to possess gumption and insight. Perhaps I’ve been fooled. It wouldn’t be the first time a woman negates my skill of deduction.”
He swallows convulsively, riveted to the flesh at the base of my throat.
Notice how his breathing has deepened? How his gaze keeps returning to my mouth.
Tongue wetting my bottom lip in response to the attention, I resist the urge to hide behind a tree and balk.
I’m not intimidating him at all. Am I? Not if he’s watching my pulse and reacting in typical Vampire fashion. Am I trying to intimidate? My chin is making a goodly attempt to burrow into my chest, and my body language is entirely submissive.
“Ah, I … uh….”
Is he turning the Vampire whammy on me? When did I become the lamb to his wolf?
I’m the wolf.
Honestly, Harmony. He may be older, smarter, and use words like ‘savoir-faire’ and ‘gumption’, but you’re blessed with an ancient being of power that can be as impressive. Dredge a modicum of defiance, if you please.
I push my shoulders back. “I doubt.…” I shuffle my feet and grapple for words. “I doubt you could wipe your ass let alone protect me you, um, ass.” My pride shrivels in embarrassment.
Lips pressing together, the Vampire turns his face. Collecting himself? His eyes water as he fights and stave of laughter. Lord, his shoulders shake from the effort.
“Don’t laugh.” My shoulder’s curl. “It’s rude that’s what it is.”
He attempts to look at me, but swings his face away when it creases with amusement.
Sweat gathers at the small of my back during this extended silence. I wriggle and roll my eyes skyward. It’s hot regardless of the dark clouds, shadowy tree canopy, and damp undergrowth. That northerly breeze blowing the trees and tossing leaves into lawless twirls is positively balmy. More sweat gatherers between my shoulder blades. Uncomfortable. Fuck it. The conversation wiggled from my grasp the moment I opened my mouth.
There’s no point trying to impress him. Why did I want to in the first place?
“You think you’re so smart and funny. You’re nothing but a prick that’s all talk and no action.” My sneer ends a shamefaced mutter. Again my brain has relied on pithy insults to get my point across.
Black. Hole. Swallow. Me.
The Vampire’s dark gold head slowly turns and slowly cocks. His features pull into an expression unreservedly incredulous.
At least that got a response other than laughter.
He smirks and wags eyebrows. “Do you possess a mouth to brain filter? Or is the inability to act with refinement a trait inherited from the animal squatting inside you?”
Struck dumb and my jaw’s slack. Squatting? He called my ancient and wise wolf sprit a squatter. A wondrous power that transforms me into the most majestic creature on earth and he calls it a squatter.
“Did you just … well why don’t you….” Lips flapping, my head is stuffed with hot space where his words bounce in booming echoes. Cold air blows across my scalp, but does nothing to dampen the burning outrage. “Why you obnoxious piece of–”
“My, my. Obnoxious.” He preens; smiling charmingly and again transforms that pale cameo of perfection into a living angel’s visage. He has dimples. “That’s three whole syllables. See what can be achieved when you push yourself.”
Our gazes clash for a terrifying heartbeat.
His lips twitch.
Bastard.
I lunge for his throat.
Dodging to avoid my clawed hands, he snags my wrist. He grins evilly eyes ablaze with victory. Yanking hard, he pulls me off balance.
I stumble. Sprawl over his lap, all elbows and knees, stiffening when something hard and hot presses into my stomach.
His triumphant laughter putters to a suggestive chuckle. He’s unconcerned I can tell the hard length digging into my lower stomach isn’t a fallen branch. It’s not desire for me that’s given him a hard on, but the excitement and anticipation of the pleasure he’d steal from my body in blood.
“Clumsy for a Lycan.” His patrician nose nudges my hair. “Unreasonably compelling,” he murmurs. “Endearing.”
The steady inhalation of my scent causes a shiver, snapping me from paralysis. Clawing at the ground, I strain to be free. I need to shift. Run howling from danger on four legs stronger than Human limbs.
Answering the fear she can fall amassing inside, my wolf spirit brushes under my skin.
The atmosphere charges with fierce energy and my muscles tingle in exhilaration. Her power builds to bursting, and I pant my eagerness.
Something that takes seconds is – unbelievably – too slow. I feel the Vampire gathering his power to respond.
I scream my urgency and reach as far as I can with my arms outstretched. She surges forward. Just a few moments, a little more power from the earth.
The Vampire straightens me over his lap and pins me with a heavy hand. “Nej. Stop fussing.”
My mounting shift is ruthlessly cut. The imminent presence of my wolf vanishes.
Left dangling she tumbles into the recesses of my mind and lands in an ungainly sprawl. Shattered. It’ll be hours before I’m able to piece her fragments together.
“Oh my Christ.” My fingers rake the dirt expecting claws. “I’m going to fucking die.”
Vampires can disrupt the flow of earth energy when a Lycan shifts, but to feel it happen is indescribable. He switched off my power – a vital part of who I am – as if it’s nothing. An afterthought.
Face buried in my hair, he murmurs exotic words. He’s not struck, but his posture reveals no plan to release me even if his tone is soft and comforting.
This precious moment when he dallies is an opportunity at freedom, but I can’t think. How am I supposed to think when long fingers hold onto my wrist? Branding me while his thumb burns my skin brushing side to side?
“You tricked me.” I’m hot and cold all over. Robbing me of coheren
t thought? A shockingly, well, shocking erection presses into my hip with overwhelming insistence. “You have your strength.”
“Of course.”
“You hurt my wolf sprit.”
“You forced my hand calling on her.”
Confusion shoves aside fear. I’m not supposed to try and protect myself? “I don’t understand.”
My fingers shift left to right searching the undergrowth. A rock? Sharp stick? Something. Anyfuckingthing. I can make him bleed before he sinks fangs into me. If I hit hard he might be stunned enough to let go.
“It’s better this way. Gentler.”
“For who? What difference does it make if you hurt me? Attacking someone is not a gentle thing.”
Stilted, he says, “My legs.”
He remains silent after this revelation that explains nothing.
I suppose he means he didn’t take advantage when I held him because of his legs? Damage to his body would’ve been minimal if he’d attacked me before. I stare at the ground. Confusion furrows wrinkling my forehead smooth. “Liar.”
“Irrelevant.”
I hear the apology. A wish to avoid causing pain doesn’t mean he won’t harm me taking what he needs.
My mouth opens to scream, but the air has left the forest. Tears smudge the gloomy trees. “You’re going to bite me.”
He strokes the small of my back. “Ja.”
With nothing to lose, I try to crawl away.
His grip tightens. “An audacious but flawed plan.”
“Screw you. Choke on me, undead freak.”
Circular caresses low on my back lengthen into ovals. A stroke stops below my nape, and his hand rests heavy on my spine. “Crass insults are unattractive in a lady.”
“I’m no lady.”
I’m rotated so my back curves over his arm, as if we’ve ended a violent tango and in a passionate culmination of seduction I’ve succumbed with dramatic flourish.
The longer he holds me the more difficult it’s becoming to remain unaffected by his dark lure.
“I’ll tell you what’s unattractive. Your arrogance. ” Lie. I find his confidence way hot. “My inability to stop yapping because I’m afraid is natural.” Truth. I have the verbal shits and it’s embarrassing as hell. “Attractiveness to you is not a priority.” Lie. I so badly want him to be attracted to me.
Eyes slipping away from mine, he looks thoughtful, but then his pupils dilate. He makes a guttural noise. Response stalled, his attention is captivated by something just below my face. His fingers dig into my waist. They relax when I wince. Curious, I follow the path of his gaze to see my chest heaving.
The movement makes the swell of my breasts strain the top of my muddied bodice.
Fiery heat cascades across my throat and chest. I wiggle to shift the material higher. The bodice stays in place, and my breast makes a jiggle for freedom. I freeze. The dark curve of my nipple is showing. “Don’t look.”
Eyes sparkling, his head dips until his nose is a twitch from mine. “Quiet.” He’s so close I have to alternate my gaze to stop from going cross-eyed.
But what I see is clearer than any emotion I’ve caught from him.
Desire.
“You like what you–” I snap my jaw shut.
Rearing back, he turns the focus of his considerable attention back to my eyes.
I pale at the stark hunger in his stare and backpedal. Fast. “I don’t–that wasn’t–shit.”
“Close your eyes.”
“Why should I do anything you–”
“Shut. Up.” The clipped command is edged with irritation. “And close your eyes.”
I open my mouth to argue, but his eyes change. Profound. Terrifying. My gasp of fear hitches and my eyes water until the corners sting.
His power plunges into the heart of me and turns it to ice.
Fumbling, my fingers stop their explorative furrowing and curl under into fists. They shake. I don’t want him to see me cry, but a droplet escapes my lashes and streaks down my cheek in a theatrical zag. Another drops onto my cheekbone and makes a run for it across my pounding temple into my hair.
I reach for my wolf, but she’s held under the Vampire’s thumb.
Cold lips brush over the base of my neck. I tremble. Fangs scrap over my skin. A scream works its way to the surface and eases past my lips as a shrill keening.
His cheek rubs my collarbone then presses to my chest. “Listen to your heart. Is this all it takes to break you?” Sinuous body winding tight, his grip becomes painful. Angelic features twist and darken with malignant intent. “So little enticement.”
“Toying with victims might be part of the feeding for you, but I won’t play.”
“You know nothing of my character. While it is dark, it is not cruel. Does thinking of me as evil help you prepare for what’s to come?” He smiles, a reveal of sharp teeth that makes his beauty terror. “It is not my fault you permitted me gaining the advantage.”
“Why are you still talking?”
His smile widens. Fangs glint in the moonlight. “Indeed.” This is it. He’ll transform into a monster and tear out my throat.
My charging heartbeat becomes a single humming note. Moments pass. Mouth dry, I shake so hard the world vibrates. More seconds of silence. Lightheaded and heavy eyed my shaking diminishes.
Gazing at him, I’m held captive.
I want to say his eyes are cruel. That he looks sinister and evil, but he doesn’t. He just doesn’t. His throat bobs like one who is parched, but he does not move. I hold still as another minute passes, held close in what’s become an embrace. I’m too scared to react. Too stunned to understand.
“What I feel is not possible. Insane thinking.” Stunned blue eyes blaze starkly in his pale face. “What is this?”
Is he…? Is he arguing with himself over feeding off me?
What force stops an injured Vampire draining his prey? A conscience? Curiosity?
Is he talking to himself or me? Do I respond or stay silent?
“Do it.” Hmm. That faint wobble might have ruined my attempt at bravado.
Grip loosening, his fingers slide across the exposed skin on my arms. His focus intensifies. Narrows. Invisible trails of fire kindle on my body where he studies me. Lips ghost across my pulse and a hesitant kiss is pressed to my neck. Pulling back, he waits.
Under his steady gaze, my lips tingle. My hands unclench as a warm weakness spreads from my fingertips. I’m confused. How can terror become want? I glare at my traitorous limbs then wheel my eyes to meet his.
Solemn questioning quickly clouds an answering flash of desire. “You feel it too?”
Feel it? My desire is a living, breathing presence. “I should lie.”
He nuzzles my throat. “There’s no need. No one but us will know.” He runs his nose across my skin from my collarbone to the curve of my chin. “Luscious. The taste of your skin is rich. Like warm apples and cinnamon. You smell vivid. Hot.” He licks, letting his tongue dither and rasp. “Scrumptious.”
Blood roars in my ears. The strangled whimper that escapes me is absurdly pitched. The gloomy edges of the forest roll forward to cover everything but him in darkness. He’s this magnificent thing I want to touch and taste.
We lock gazes.
Just like that, I shake off his hold.
And he lets me go.
Crouching in readiness not a foot away, my panicked gulps are no longer from fear or exertion. “I could run.”
“Yes.”
“Lead the Enforcers here.”
Leaves crackle under my palms. I shift closer. “They’d surround you. Hem you in. Tighten their circle as a couple distract you.”
He leans forward. “Come here, Harmony.” Voice husky with sensual compulsion, it’s the first time he’s said my name.
Closing the distance, I place my knees either side of his thighs to straddle him. Back where I started. We fit. Perfectly. I press my hips into his. His rigid length aligns with my heat like a missile seekin
g explosion.
Holding me this time, his hands find my waist and mould to its contours. His thumbs apply pressure to the flesh above my hipbones making the contact overtly sexual.
Apart from a brief tremor he doesn’t move, only watches. “What happens then?”
His thumbs circle slowly. A thick and hot coil of delirious pleasure has my head falling back. I expose my throat.
He nips the bare skin. “What then?”
The sharp pinch under his fangs jerks me from the precipice. He stares. What’s going on behind the stormy blue?
I stare back confident sanity abandoned my body. This creature makes me feel startling things. Things that make me want to howl and roll over to show my belly.
The moment stretches.
Breaks.
He gasps and his delicious rocking stops. “I can’t.” His face transforms into a nightmare.
Twin points of pressure on my skin are not enough to prepare me for the shock of his fangs tearing into my flesh, and his mouth clamping with brute force.
CHAPTER THREE
He bites me.
Accounts I’ve read of Lycans being bitten by a Vampire describe intolerable pain from the poison they excrete.
The only pain is the ache between my legs. No wonder Humans fall so helplessly to such predatory charms.
He sucks harder, pulling deeper.
I rub myself on him to relieve the pressure and he grinds back. My canines lengthen and my eyes burn. I want to bite him too. Sink my teeth into his flesh and brand him so that he remembers me forever.
The Vampire releases me.
Body liquid, I clasp a hand over my bleeding neck. I shake off mangled thoughts and struggle to move past the drugged languor caused by his feeding.
Suspicious, his eyes narrow and his tongue laps at the blood gathered at the corner of his mouth. He stares at my fangs. “Where have these come from?”
“Are you talking to yourself?”
“How did you do this thing?” He continues as if I haven’t spoken. “I hold the wolf.”
“I can’t tell if you’re asking me. I’m done guessing.”