Blake's Pursuit (23 page)

“Hannah offered me her blood to save my life.”

~ ~ ~

Still skeptical, she searched his eyes. Was he telling the truth? And why should it matter that Blake had bitten her best friend? It was none of her business.

Oh please, just admit that you can’t stand the fact that he bit Hannah, but not you
, the voice in her head said.

“I had an accident.” Blake’s words pierced her thoughts.

Slowly she nodded. “What happened?”

He reached for her then and pulled her onto his lap, so she was straddling him, before she could protest. Well, maybe she hadn’t wanted to protest because she liked the fact that he sought a physical connection to her.

Blake caressed her back gently. “Baby, there was never anything between me and Hannah, though she did save my life, just like you saved mine last night. And while I was very grateful to Hannah, I never touched her the way I can’t stop touching you.” He brushed his lips over hers in a feather-light kiss.

Then he leaned back against the headboard.

“I was in pursuit of a suspect one night close to sunrise. The road was wet, and I was driving too fast. There was no time to call for backup. I knew I had to catch him before he was gone for good. It was a winding road in a wooded area. I lost him behind a bend in the road. Or so I’d thought, until I realized he’d managed to pull onto a dirt path to hide. When I saw the headlights in my rearview mirror, I knew he’d outsmarted me.”

Her heart beating rapidly, she asked, “What did he do?”

“He shot at me. The rear window shattered, but my seat and backrest were steel-plated. He couldn’t know that. But he realized very quickly that he couldn’t eliminate me by staying behind me, so he pulled to my side. His truck was bigger and heavier than my BMW. He rammed me. I did everything I could to keep control of the car, but behind the next bend there were road works. The truck managed to get past it. But my car flipped over and rolled down the hill, overturning several times.”

She gasped. “Oh my God!”

“I would have been okay even during daylight while I waited for help, because the windows in my car had a special UV-impenetrable coating. Something Thomas, one of our geniuses, invented. But the rear window was shattered. And at the angle the car landed, the rising sun would have fried me. I was at nature’s mercy.”

Blake ran a hand through his hair, then placed it back on her back, and continued to stroke her.

“Why didn’t you get out of the car and take shelter somewhere?”

“I couldn’t move my legs. The front of the car had been crushed and the engine was practically sitting on my lap. I was bleeding. I tried to get free, but I wasn’t strong enough. My injuries were draining me of my strength, and while I ordinarily would have been able to push the collapsed engine parts off me and wedge free, in my injured state, I was powerless.”

She felt tears brim in her eyes.

“Had Hannah not been out walking her dog, I wouldn’t be here today. Frankenfurter found my car and alerted Hannah. When she found me, she tried to call 9-1-1, but she couldn’t get reception. My phone had the same problem. We couldn’t call anybody, and the sun was about to rise. I had no choice but to tell her the truth. I was as good as dead anyway.”

“Don’t say that!”

“It’s the truth. I had no way of knowing how Hannah would react.” He shook his head. And he’d been too weak to exercise any kind of mind control on Hannah to make her help him. “But all she said was
How can I help?
Imagine my surprise. She wasn’t afraid. In fact, she seemed excited.”

Lilo had to chuckle involuntarily. “That’s Hannah. She’s game for any adventure. Always has been. She needs that excitement in her life. That constant rush of adrenaline.”

Blake smiled back at her. “That was my luck. When I told her that I needed human blood to heal myself so I could gain enough strength to free my legs and escape from the car, she didn’t hesitate. I took only as much as I needed. Human blood directly from a living human’s vein is much more powerful than any bottled blood. But of course, I had no time to warn Hannah about the side effects. The sexual arousal. The fact that my bite was erotic, even though sex was the last thing on my mind.” He sighed. “With her blood, I was able to garner enough strength to free myself. But the sun was already rising, so Hannah took a blanket she found in my trunk and we were able to make it to an old shed she’d seen on her walk with Frankenfurter. We took shelter there.”

“And Hannah, how did she take the bite?”

“She was stunned, as was to be expected. And hooked, but that was something I didn’t realize for a while.”

“Hooked? You mean she fell in love with you?”

Blake stroked his knuckles over her cheek, a gesture that comforted her. “No. She was hooked on the bite. On the feeling it gave her. We talked while we were waiting for nightfall. I told her about Scanguards, about what I do. Who I am. And I told her I’d give her anything she wanted for saving my life.”

“What did she want?”

“Very little. She really is too good for this world. All she wanted was a job. See, she’d been fired the previous day. That’s why she’d been out all the way in the woods with Frankenfurter. To think about what she wanted to do with her life. It was fate that she was there.”

“So you gave her a job.”

Blake nodded. “I could have arranged pretty much any job she wanted in this town. Scanguards has lots of connections. But she didn’t want to work for any human company. She wanted to work for vampires. I don’t think Ronny was her first vampire boyfriend. I think she dated several of the vampires she met as part of her job. I suspect that she was always chasing that high that she felt when I bit her.”

He combed his fingers through her hair. “That’s why I feel responsible for her and will do anything to save her. Not only because she saved my life, but because I’m the one who thrust her into the world of vampires. Everything that happened to her happened because I introduced her to this life instead of wiping her memory of the accident and how she saved me.”

“Why didn’t you wipe her memory?”

“She begged me not to. She wanted to remember everything.” Blake caressed her face gently, and warmth spread inside her. “And you? Do you want to remember, now that you know what danger you could be in just by knowing?”

The decision was an easy one. “I want to remember everything. Every little detail.” She shifted on his lap, lifting herself onto her knees and readjusting her core to align with his cock. “I want to make more memories. Will you help me with that?”

He brushed his lips to hers, smiling. “I thought you’d never ask.”

31

Lilo lowered herself onto his cock and took him inside her. He didn’t think he would ever get enough of that. Like a cocoon, her warmth and wetness engulfed him, instantly making everything else disappear in the background.

Nibbling on her upper lip, Blake thrust his hips up, seating himself even deeper in her. She gasped in delight and threw her head back, thus exposing her vulnerable throat. Temptation charged through him. But he wouldn’t act on it. Lilo hadn’t made the decision yet whether to grant him the pleasure of biting her. And he wouldn’t rush her into it, because if he did, she would only resent him for it.

Instead, he lowered his face to her breasts and captured one hard nipple in his mouth, sucking on it, making Lilo shiver under his touch. Yes, that was how he would help her decide: by showering her with passion and pleasure, with tenderness and care. And with love. He froze. Love? Was the feeling that was controlling his body and mind, love? Could it be? Could it even happen after so short a time? How would he know for sure?

Her voice made him snap his attention back to her.

“Oh, yes, Blake, please, just like that,” she said, riding him faster now.

He helped her by gripping her hips and lifting her up whenever she rose onto her knees, then drawing her down when she sank back onto him. Despite the plentiful lubrication from his semen and her juices, the friction was increasing, and he felt his next orgasm approach.

He continued sucking her breasts, alternating between her nipples, while he plunged his cock deep into her.

“Yeah, ride me hard,” he mumbled against her firm flesh.

He lifted his head to look at her face, a face that glistened with passion. Their gazes met, melting into each other.

Lilo suddenly lifted her hand and brushed her hair away from one side of her neck, tilting her head to the side. He stared at the delicate skin and could see the vein beneath its surface pulse in the rhythm of their lovemaking. How many more temptations would he have to resist?

Lilo bent closer, then let one hand trail down the exposed side of her neck, as if to show him the way.

He groaned out loud. “Damn it, Lilo. This is hard enough.”

She didn’t break eye contact. “I know. I can feel it.” As if to emphasize her statement, she drove down fast, practically impaling herself on his rock-hard cock.

He moved his head back, touching the headboard. “If you don’t stop teasing me—”

She cut him off by crushing her mouth to his. Her tongue licked the seam of his lips, and he parted them, unable to resist her. When she licked along his teeth to entice his fangs to descend, he knew he’d lost.

A ringing sound drifted to his ear. Was he already delirious from the knowledge that in a few seconds, he’d be piercing Lilo’s skin and driving his fangs into her? Was he that far gone already?

The ringing didn’t stop. Finally, he realized what it was: his cell phone. It lay on his nightstand. And the ringtone was one he couldn’t ignore.

He ripped his mouth from Lilo’s. “Sorry, Lilo, but I need to get this.”

A disappointed mewl came over her lips, but she stopped moving up and down on him. He reached for the phone, but before he answered it, he said, “Trust me, I’m more disappointed by this interruption than you.”

Her eyes sparkled at his words, and he squeezed her hip in reassurance while he connected the call.

“John?”

“Glad to hear you’re awake,” his colleague answered. “Are you fully recovered?”

Despite the fact that his shoulder still felt a little sore, he answered, “I’m a hundred percent.”

“Good, because we have a solid lead.”

Lilo who was leaning closer to hear what John was saying, sucked in a breath. “Oh my God!”

“Let me put you on speaker. I’m here with Lilo.” He pressed the speaker button.

“Hi, Lilo. So, here’s what we’ve got: we found Hannah’s dog at an animal shelter. And listen to this: who do you think dropped off the dog there the night of Hannah’s disappearance?”

“Who?” Lilo asked.

“Ronny.”

“Why would he—”

Blake cut her off. “Are you sure it was him?”

“Positive. The clerk on duty that night recognized him from the photo we showed him.”

“Did he also see how he left? On foot, by car? Was anybody waiting for him outside?”

“No,” John said. “But guess what: there’s a gas station kitty corner from the animal shelter. And they have surveillance cameras. One of them caught Ronny getting into an old pick-up truck.”

“A pick-up? I thought the car we were looking for was a Toyota Corolla.”

“Correct, but he wasn’t driving that car.”

“Please tell me the camera picked up the license plate.”

“It did. We already traced it. Looks like it’s registered to an address in Napa. We looked it up on Google Maps. Pretty remote area, deep in the woods. Ideal for hiding an illegal operation.”

“Let’s get a team together, now,” Blake ordered.

“Already done. We’re just waiting for you.”

He checked the digital clock on his nightstand. Not only did it show the current time, it was also programmed to count down to sunset and sunrise. “Sunset is in an hour. I’ll be at HQ before that.”

“Good. We’ll be waiting.”

Blake disconnected the call and looked at Lilo. “I wish I didn’t have to cut this short, but—”

She put a finger over his lips. “You don’t have to explain anything. We’ve gotta go. Let’s get dressed.”

“We?” He shook his head. “Oh no, you’re not coming with me this time.”

“But—”

“No but! We don’t know what’s waiting for us there. You must be crazy if you think I’d let you put yourself in harm’s way.”

She braced her hands on her hips, scoffing. “You’re calling me crazy?”

“Only in the best possible way.”

“There is no fucking best possible way.”

He gripped her hips. “While it does turn me on when you swear like that, I’m afraid you’re not going to win this argument. You’re staying put. And to make sure you do, I’m going to ask my family to keep you company.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will!” Furious that she wasn’t obeying, he thrust his hips upward, ramming his cock deep into her.

Her eyelids fluttered and he could hear her pulse race. Well, maybe he’d secure her submission by other means. He wasn’t above a little manipulation. And nobody would get hurt by it.

Sliding his hand between their bodies, he found her clit well lubricated by their combined juices and rubbed his finger over it.

“That’s not fair,” she ground out and dropped her head back.

“Life isn’t fair. Now be a good girl and come for your big bad vampire.”

While he plunged in and out of her, he steadily rubbed his finger over her clit, increasing the pressure and tempo with each second, until he finally felt Lilo stiffen in his arms. A second later, a shudder wrecked her body and she collapsed against him, while her interior muscles squeezed his erection. But he didn’t allow himself to come. Instead he lifted Lilo off his lap and laid her on the bed.

He pressed a kiss to her navel. “That’s a good girl.”

“You’re a bad vampire,” she murmured, but there was no heat behind her accusation. He’d managed to wear her out, at least long enough so he could get ready to leave.

He rose and smiled down at her. “Exactly how you like it, baby.”

32

Blake had left his Aston Martin in Scanguards’ parking garage and was riding in one of the blackout vans with Samson and John. Amaury and Wesley were following with Oliver in a second van, while Haven and Yvette followed in their car. It was unusual for Samson to take part in a mission these days, but given the serious implications of a drug that could control humans, he’d decided to get intimately involved in all aspects of the case. He’d been briefed on every detail and now knew as much about the case as Wesley and Blake.