Blood Secrets-Valorian 1 (24 page)

He leaned his head down closer to her mouth. “What was that, honey?”

“Did you get him?”

He nodded. “Yeah, baby. Mel’s dead. He can’t ever hurt you again.”

“The other one, too?”

“There was no one else there.”

Her brow wrinkled in thought. He’d seen that look of concentration so many times before.

She was thinking hard about something.

“Are you sure?” she rasped.

He nodded. “You’re safe, baby.”

Nodding, she snuggled into his chest and smiled. “You came for me. Just as I dreamed.”

Tears filled his eyes. “I’ll always come for you, Eve. No matter what.”

“I love you,” she rasped, and her eyelids fluttered closed.

His heart convulsed with emotion. An emotion he hadn’t felt in a long time. One he thought he’d never feel again. Smiling, he pressed his lips to her forehead and whispered,

“I love you, too.”

But she was already unconscious and didn’t hear a thing.

“H e’s coming for you, sweet thing.”

Eve bolted straight up from where she lay. Panic gripped her tight as she surveyed her surroundings. Swiveling her head back and forth, she tried to figure out where she was.

The room was white-walled and she was in a bed with metal railings. A machine beeped beside her, and a tube ran out of her arm. Hospital. She was safe and sound in a hospital.

Caine slept in a chair next to her bed. Slumped over to one side, his face was slack. His blue shirt was streaked with blood. She remembered everything. Caine had come for her.

He had rescued her just as she knew he would.

Leaning back into her pillows, she let out a deep breath and cried.

Her entire body convulsed with emotion as she let it all out. All her trepidation, her despair and longing seeped out in long wailing sobs.

Caine jerked awake and shot forward in his chair. He reached for her hand. “What’s the matter? Are you in pain? I’ll call the nurse.”

She shook her head, unable to form any coherent words.

Reaching up, he stroked his hand over her forehead and hair. “You’re all right, baby.

You’re safe.”

She couldn’t respond. When she opened her mouth, more sorrowful moans escaped. She could hardly breathe from the pressure on her lungs. Her head throbbed with the intensity of her distress. Instead of fighting it, she succumbed to it. Allowed it to pull her under like a wave rolling across sand.

Caine held her through it, softly murmuring to her, gently stroking her hair and her cheeks.

She had survived death. That’s all she could think of. That’s all that raced through her mind. She knew she had been so close to her end that she could still feel the icy press of the blade on her chest, on her neck, like a premonition of how it would feel in the afterlife.

Caine had arrived just in time. A few more moments and she would’ve been dead.

Reaching up, she buried her hand in his hair and pulled him close. She needed to feel his warmth, the heat of his body against hers. Maybe then she’d stop shaking.

He must have discerned her desperate need for him. He stood, and slid in next to her on the bed. He wrapped an arm under her neck, one around her waist and pulled her tight to him, nestling his head on top of hers.

He held her like that, close, firm and warm until the last of her sobs trembled past her lips, until the last quiver of fear passed over her skin.

Nuzzling into his chest, just under his chin, Eve sighed. It felt so right being with him like this. She never wanted to move, but knew that soon she’d have to do just that. Nothing lasted forever. Especially not something that felt so damn good, and so perfect.

Something that their different societies would never let them have.

“Am I crushing you?” His voice was so quiet and low, she barely heard him.

She shook her head, and wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling him even closer.

Chuckling, he ran a hand up and down her back. “I’ll take that as a no.”

“I don’t want to move. It’s perfect right here.”

He hugged her tight, and pressed his lips to her head. She could hear him take a ragged breath, and then let it out. He was about to say something. And she was sure it was something she didn’t want to hear. Not now. Maybe not ever.

She clenched her hands into his back. “Please don’t speak. I…I couldn’t handle hearing those words now.”

“Eve…”

She shook her head, and then looked up into his face. “Just kiss me. For now. Just kiss me.”

And he did.

Leaning down, he covered her mouth with his. At first, it was gentle, soft, testing. Then it turned feverish, like a raging inferno of emotion.

He took her, sampling her lips with his teeth and tongue. She could feel the sharp point of his fangs as they scraped over her bottom lip. But she didn’t care. All she wanted right now was Caine. And everything that went with him.

Streaking her hands over his back, she hungered for the feel of his warm flesh. The IV

tube in her hand pulled as she moved her left arm, but she didn’t care. That pain was insignificant compared to what she felt right now with Caine next to her, his heart racing, his breath shallow with desire.

Darting her palms under the hem of his shirt, she found the hard muscles of his chest and the soft stripe of hair that lined his sternum down to his trousers. The memory of tracing that line with her tongue flooded her mind and her senses. She wanted to feel that passion again.

She trailed her fingers down and clasped the button on his pants. With a skilled flick of thumb and forefinger, Eve popped it open.

Caine groaned as she touched him. The heavy weight of his erection felt so damn good in her palm. Life affirming.

“Eve,” he moaned. “We shouldn’t…”

“Yes, we should.”

She rolled him over onto his back. His eyes were wide as she tore at the buttons on his shirt. But he must have sensed her need to control the situation, because he offered no help.

In seconds, she parted the cotton of his shirt, and ran her hands over his chest. She circled his nipples with her thumbs. And matched him moan for moan when she pinched and pulled at his taut flesh.

Another time she might’ve prolonged his pleasure, drawn it out, torturing him with each stroke. But right now she needed the affirmation of life and passion. She needed to fill herself up with everything that was good in the world to forget the evil she had faced.

Kneeling beside him, she made short work of his pants and boxer shorts, having them down to his ankles in seconds. His erection was hard like steel. She loved the feel of him in her hand. As she stroked him, she watched his face. Every flinch, every grimace sent shivers down her body. She loved that she could make him hunger for her so intensely.

Hiking up her gown, she straddled him, hovering above his erection. With one fluid move she sunk down on him, filling her slick channel with his hot flesh.

“Oh God, Eve,” he moaned as she started to rock up and down.

Bracing her hands on his chest, Eve moved, sliding up and down on Caine. With every stroke, she clenched her jaw, already feeling the orgasm building inside. Heat flooded her body. Flutters of pure ecstasy radiated over the entire length of her form. From her head to her toes, she could feel…everything: the soft breeze floating in the room, the way Caine bunched and flexed his muscles inside her, the sound of his labored breathing and the smell of his skin.

She would remember it. Nothing could take that from her.

Moving faster with more deliberate actions, Eve fell forward, covering Caine’s chest. She wrapped her hands around his head and buried her fingers into the silk of his hair.

His fingers dug into her hips, and she knew he was close to coming. As was she.

She nuzzled his chin with her lips, moving up to find his mouth. She kissed him with everything she had, everything she was.

He moved his hands up to her hair. Entwining his fingers, he pulled her head back to stare into her eyes just as he thrust into her so deep, as deep as her soul, and found release.

She found it at the exact same time.

A s Caine walked down the sanitized white hallway of the South Shadowwood Hospital, his shoes squeaking with each step, he glanced down at the white lilies in his hand and thought they were a pathetic gesture of his true feelings.

Wishing he’d thought of it sooner, Caine had snuck from her room when she finally fell back asleep. He hoped the flowers would make her smile again.

Eve lay in a bed a few feet away, recovering from her ordeal. Thankfully, once Caine had got her into an ambulance, they were able to stabilize her. When they got to the hospital, the doctor had been able to flush her system of the Vampatamine. The doctor told him a half hour more and she would not have made it.

He had stayed at her bedside for six hours, holding her hand, and eyeing the machine hooked up to her chest that monitored her vitals. Every blip and beep made him flinch with alarm. He’d seen countless people, even close friends, in hospitals fighting one thing or another. But nothing had affected him like this. No one had gotten into his mind and soul like Eve had.

When she had woken and reached for him, frantic for his touch, his heart had nearly shattered by the impact of her passion, by the impact of her. Their union had been powerful. Something he would never forget.

She had possessed him utterly.

As he approached the door to her room, he paused. He could hear someone speaking to her. Not a voice he recognized at first.

He peered around the corner and spied a tall, older Hispanic man standing at the foot of Eve’s bed, his hands clasped firmly in front of him.

Captain Morales.

Now that he’d seen the man, Caine recognized the voice. He had phoned Eve’s boss the moment she was out of danger at the hospital. He didn’t realize that the man would come all this way to see her. Caine’s respect for the man increased tenfold.

“I’ll see that you get that pay raise when you come back to work,” Caine heard Captain Morales say. “But make sure you take your time, Eve. You take all the time you need to get better and…put all this behind you.” He paused, and then continued. “We have a good psychologist on staff if you need to talk to someone.”

Caine heard her sigh. “I’m okay. I just need a few days.”

“Well, once we get you into a real hospital with a real doctor, you can make that decision.”

“This is a real hospital, Hector. Dr. Woodward is a real doctor. He even went to Harvard Medical School.”

The captain huffed. “I’m just saying.”

“I know what you’re saying. And you’re wrong.”

Caine could hear some rustling, and he imagined Eve was trying to sit up and assert herself, even from the confines of a hospital bed. He had to smile at that. She had a lot of spunk.

“The people here are just people, Hector. People with strange and wonderful gifts. Gifts we may not understand, but that doesn’t make them any less human. I figured that out big-time.”

“If you had been with our crime scene team, none of this would’ve happened. I would never have let you get hurt. That vampire, Caine Valorian, has a lot to answer for.”

Leaning against the wall, Caine tried not to react. But the captain was right, he did have a lot to answer for. There wasn’t a minute that went by that he didn’t blame himself for what had happened to Eve. If only he had sent her home when he should have, instead of selfishly holding on to her. It was his desire for her that nearly cost her her life.

He was a fool to believe that they could work past their differences. There were too many.

“This was not Caine’s fault, Hector. That man is one of the best crime scene investigators I have ever met. So please don’t speak about him like that. He may be a vampire, but he is more human than most men I’ve known.”

His heart swelled. If only she knew how much it truly meant to him to hear those words from her lips. To know that she would defend him. Oh, how wonderful they could’ve been together. If only…

“Well, Mr. Bask has already informed me that Valorian will be on a tight leash from now on. I think his investigation days are numbered.”

Caine’s pager took that moment to vibrate in his pocket. He didn’t have to hazard a guess to know whose number would be on display. He guessed he now knew why the baron had been paging him all day. To ream him a new one.

Well, Caine figured, the baron could wait a little while longer for that pleasure.

Clearing his throat, he stepped into the room. Eve’s smile blossomed the moment she saw him. And his heart skipped a few beats. Even in a green hospital gown, her hair everywhere, she took his breath away. She was a radiant beacon to the darkness of his soul.

“Caine,” she breathed.

He gave her a little smile and bowed his head. “I see you are feeling better.”

“Yes, thank you.”

He neared the bed and handed her the flowers. She brought them to her nose. “Lilies.

How did you know they were my favorite?”

He tapped his head. “My psychic abilities.”

She hid her smile behind the blossoms of the white flowers. “Caine, this is Captain Hector Morales.” She nodded toward the captain standing stiffly at the end of the bed.

Caine turned to the man and offered his hand. The captain took it and shook it briefly.

“Yes, we’ve spoken on the phone.” Releasing his hand, Caine swiveled back toward Eve.

“I just came to see how you were doing before they…shipped you home. The team sends their regards. Even Jace seemed a little misty at your leaving.”

She smiled, but he could see it did not reach her eyes. Motioning to Captain Morales, she said, “Could you give us a few moments please, Hector?”

The captain hesitated as he glanced at Caine. Then nodded and left the room.

He felt like his legs were leaden. He so much wanted to go to her, soothe her, take all her pain and suffering away with the stroke of his hands but he couldn’t. Last night had been special. But it would never be the same between them again. They had their time together.

And now it was the end.

She set the flowers on the side table. Shuffling a little, she tried to sit up more. Caine moved to her side, and helped her, placing another pillow up behind her back.