Claiming the Vampire (21 page)

He stopped. His thumb brushed her cheek, and pleasure coiled in her stomach.

Just because he what? Loved her?

This was when he would say it. And then she could say it back.

But he didn’t. He pulled his hand away and sat down on the bed again, but this time there was a foot of space between them.

“You don’t need to hear all that now,” he said. “Tell me about this duel. Will you fight with swords?”

Trying to bite back her disappointment, Jessica shook her head. “No. Knives.”

He frowned. “His choice?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“Because I would have made the same choice, if it were up to me—and if I were fighting you. Even if I didn’t know you, I’d assume that the bow and the sword are your preferred weapons.”

“But why?”

He hesitated. “The sword and the bow impose a certain distance in battle. A knife fight is much more intimate.”

Jessica felt herself flushing. “You’re saying I don’t do well in intimate situations?”

“No,” Hawk said. “I think you do incredibly well in intimate situations.” There was a flash of heat in his eyes, and her stomach muscles tightened. “But I think that intimacy is new to you. I think you’re still more comfortable with distance.”

She crossed her arms across her chest. “I’ve trained in hand-to-hand combat since I was twelve years old. My teachers always spoke well of my abilities. Isn’t that the most intimate kind of fighting?”

“I’ve been on the receiving end of those abilities,” he reminded her with a smile. “I can attest to the fact that there’s nothing wrong with your technique. But knife fights aren’t won by technique. The edge in a knife fight goes to the one who’s willing to get close, the one who can be reckless and controlled at the same time. The one who trusts their instincts and isn’t afraid to look their enemy—or death—straight in the eye.”

The last time she’d looked death in the eye was the night she’d met Hawk. “I never used to be afraid of death.”

He frowned. “But now you are?”

She looked away, fixing her gaze on the moon that shone through her window. “Now I have something to lose.”

The silence between them felt charged, and her heart pounded as she waited for him to speak.

And still Hawk didn’t say anything. Which must mean he didn’t want to say anything.

He leaned down and did something with his boots. When he straightened, he held two knives in his hand.

He rose to his feet and held one of them out to her. “Let’s fight a round or two now,” he said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

He was right. This was what they should be focused on. Mary’s life depended on how she fought tomorrow.

She accepted the knife and tested its weight in her hand. She’d trained and fought with knives before, but Hawk was right—it wasn’t her preferred weapon.

But she needed to fight like it was.

“You said there are guards outside,” Hawk said, glancing at the door. “Will they be able to hear us?”

“No. The walls and door are solid. We shouldn’t scream or shout, but they won’t hear anything short of that.”

He nodded. “Do you know what kind of surface you’ll be on tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Have you thought about fighting in bare feet?”

“I never have before. But I know a few Green Fae who do, in one-on-one combat when they’re not sure of the terrain.”

“It’s your choice, of course. But a fighter is always more agile barefoot, because you feel more vulnerable. And the more vulnerable you feel, the quicker and more resourceful you’ll be. And that’s a good mindset to bring to a knife fight.”

They moved to the center of the room by unspoken accord. “Any more tips for me, sensei?”

He smiled. “Intimacy and vulnerability go hand and hand. When you embrace your vulnerability without fear, then you can approach your enemy like a lover. And if you do that, he won’t be able to throw you off-balance. Because you’ll be in his head and in his space already, throwing
him
off.”

He feinted at her without warning, almost catching her off guard. But every nerve in her body was aware of him and she reacted instinctively, dancing out of reach.

He grinned. “There, see? You’re in your opponent’s head. And that means you can let your instincts take over, because you’ll know what he’s going to do before he does.”

She lunged in quick attack, but he eluded her thrust easily. “What if my opponent is in my head, too?” she asked, as they circled each other slowly. “What if he can sense what
I’m
going to do?”

“Then take away his advantage by being unpredictable. Let your body act before your mind can direct it.”

They sparred for half an hour, talking less and fighting more as they continued, until in the last few minutes they were attacking and parrying with such blinding speed that an observer would have seen little more than a blur of movement.

Jessica felt an exhilaration like nothing she’d ever experienced. She and Hawk were well matched, and fighting him was such a rush that she almost laughed out loud.

Finally they separated, backing off a few feet and grinning at each other.

The moment went on a little too long—long enough for Jessica to see the flare of desire in Hawk’s eyes.

Then he looked away. “That’s enough,” he said. “You’re going to wipe up the floor with this wanker. You should get some rest now, while I—”

She attacked so fast that he was knocked off-balance for the first time. She pressed her advantage without mercy, lunging and thrusting in rapid-fire motion, backing him up slowly and steadily until he was trapped between the wall and the blade of her knife, held to his throat with a hair’s breadth of space between the edge and his jugular.

They stayed frozen like that for a long, sizzling moment. Then Hawk swallowed, the convulsive movement bringing his throat into contact with the blade. A very faint line of red appeared on his pale skin. He shuddered, closing his eyes, and Jessica let the knife drop to the floor as she went up on her toes, licking the blood from his throat before she pressed her lips to his.

* * *

Hawk had never been closer to losing his sanity. He didn’t know what gave him the strength to keep from claiming her right then and there, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from kissing her—even though he knew she should be focused on her duel tomorrow and not on this.

The tang of his blood on her tongue called to the most savage instincts of his kind, the instinct to mark and claim and possess. He fought to hold those urges at bay, but he had to do something to assuage the demon inside him.

He put his hands on Jessica’s waist and spun them so their positions were reversed. With her back pressed against the wall he ground his cock against her as he fused their mouths together, tangling their tongues and swallowing her moans of desire as she melted into him.

He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. The feel of her heat was almost too much. He tore his mouth from hers and used his human teeth to nip at her throat as he thrust against her again and again.

His demon wasn’t fooled. This wasn’t what he needed. He wanted to invade her, to take her hard and deep, staking his claim with every thrust. His fangs wanted to pierce that perfect throat until she screamed in ecstasy.

But she was a virgin, not to mention a warrior on the eve of battle. Was he a man or a monster? Did he have the strength to be what Jessica needed right now, or was he nothing more than a slave to his own lust?

He thrust her away from him as he stumbled back a few paces. Jessica was gasping, her lips swollen from his assault.

He couldn’t look at her. “I’m sorry,” he said, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes.

“You’re sorry?” Her voice sounded bewildered. “But
I’m
the one who kissed
you
.”

His hands dropped to his sides as he forced himself to look at her again. With her cheeks flushed and her lips kiss-tinted and her cloud of silvery blonde hair loose around her shoulders, she was so beautiful it hurt.

“I had no business kissing you back. You should be sleeping, gathering your strength. This is the last thing you need right now.”

She shook her head slowly. “You’re wrong. I slept for hours before you came, Hawk. I don’t need more sleep. I’ve never felt more awake in my life. What I need…” She took a deep breath. “What I need is you.”

A spasm of desire rocked him. Her words called to the demon in him…but they also called to the man.

There was no way he could resist her. But he wouldn’t claim her, and he wouldn’t take her virginity. There were other ways to give her pleasure. Things he’d been fantasizing about doing since the night he’d met her.

He came back towards her, slowly. Her cheeks turned redder and her breath came quicker. When he was less than a foot away he took the front of her night dress in both hands and ripped it from neck to hem in one long, deliberate tear. Then he tugged the torn material off and cast it aside.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said breathlessly. “I would have taken it off.”

He brushed his thumbs over her nipples. “I’ve been wanting to rip your clothes off from the moment I met you.”

She moaned as he lowered his head to her breasts, and her hands slid into his hair as he licked and suckled.

But something else was calling to him. The scent of her arousal was like sweet perfume, and he needed to go to the source.

He knelt in front of her and lowered her panties to the ground. When she stepped out of them, he looked up at her.

Her hands were still in his hair.

“I’m naked,” she whispered.

Love and lust wrapped tendrils around his heart. “Yeah, you are.”

As he knelt at Jessica’s feet, looking up into her blue-green eyes, he trembled. He was in the grip of a sensation so new and so overpowering he could hardly form a thought.

It wasn’t happiness. The future was too uncertain for that, the possibility of losing Jessica too real.

This was something more primal.

Joy.

“What happens now?” Jessica whispered, her eyes huge in her beautiful face.

He let his hands settle on her hips. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life.”

Joy surged through him again. “Then let me give you pleasure.”

His hands gripped tighter when he felt her quiver. God, she was so responsive, like a harp in the wind. Jessica had so much power, so much strength—and yet beneath his hands she trembled like a leaf.

He closed his eyes and breathed in.

God, she was so hot, so wet for him already.

“Spread your legs wider for me.”

She did as he asked, a little shaky on her feet, but giving him all the access he needed.

For a minute he just drank in the sight of the woman he loved so open to his gaze, letting her scent wash over him until he felt dizzy. Almost reverently he used his thumbs to part her before he laid his tongue against the silk inside, shuddering at the sweet moisture he found.

Jessica cried out in shock and desire.

She tasted like wildness, like passion, like power. He explored her softly with his tongue, a little deeper each time, feeling Jessica’s pulse accelerate with each stroke. She made incoherent sounds, her hands in his hair, and when they fisted uncontrollably, pulling him closer, he plunged his tongue as deep inside her as it would go.

“Hawk!” she cried out, squirming to get away as if the sensations were too much, and he grabbed her hips to hold her against him. He intensified the movements of his tongue, moving upwards to the sensitive spot, smiling against her body when he felt her shudder. As he flicked his tongue over her swollen pearl he moved one hand so he could slide a finger inside her.

He gasped at the same time she did, the heat of her almost burning the flesh from his bones. He alternated the movements of his tongue with rough strokes of his thumb until she quivered.

Jessica was shaking hard now, her walls tightening around him, and Hawk slid a hand under her thigh, throwing her leg over his shoulder to bring her even closer. The next second she cried out wordlessly, her internal muscles fluttering as she climaxed, and Hawk slid his fingers out of her and laid his tongue against her once more, stroking her gently and more gently still as she came down, slowly, saying his name with a sweetness that rocked him as much as her orgasm had.

His hands went to her hips, whether to keep her or him from falling to the ground he had no idea. He looked up and saw her staring at him in amazement, her face flushed and her eyes hazy with sated desire.

“Jeepers,” was the first word she managed to say, her breath coming in little pants, and then suddenly she had her hands fisted in the front of his shirt and she was jerking him to his feet.

“What—”

“Shut up,” she said, and kissed him, her tongue tangling with his as her arms went around his neck.

Long before he was ready to he broke the kiss.

“You should get some rest now,” he said softly, caressing the side of her face with one hand. Her cheeks were still flushed, blood heating her skin.

“But…aren’t we going to…”

“No. Not the night before a battle.”

She gripped his shirt again and pulled him closer. “You know there’s a chance I could lose this fight.”

Every muscle in his body tensed. “Don’t say that.”

“Hawk. You know that possibility is always there. You were an assassin. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to live with death breathing down your neck.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “It’s your death I can’t live with,” he whispered. “Please, Jess…I’m hanging on by a thread. I’m fighting every urge I have to drag you back to Earth by force. Change the fucking subject.”

“I don’t want to die a virgin.”

He jerked his head back and stared at her. “Jess…”

“Just listen to me,” she said. “I never wanted to marry, or take a lover. I always wanted to be alone. Untouched. Belonging to no one but myself. I thought that would make me stronger, like Artemis. The virgin huntress.”

She swallowed. “But I don’t feel that way anymore. I want to give myself to you. I want you inside my body, because…” a tide of red swept into her cheeks. “Because you’re already in my heart,” she whispered. She looked down, and her next words were spoken so softly he could barely hear her. “Because I love you.”