Eternal Prey (31 page)

She smiled as she cupped his cheek and brushed her lips across his. “Sounds exciting. But I don’t want to hear any whining when you’re sticking pieces of tissue all over your luscious body to stop the bleeding after I’m finished with you.”

“Luscious body, huh?” Without another word, he stood and then scooped her up in his arms. She had only a moment to savor the feeling of her body pressed against his chest before he deposited her beside the bed. He reached down, gripped the edge of her nightgown, and slid it over her head. Somewhere between the couch and the bed, he’d lost his towel.

“Climb into bed while I get the light.” He turned and strode to the lamp.

Those few strides widened her eyes and redefined the meaning of “fine” for her. His smooth, perfect back was a given, but his beautiful bare ass in motion went a long way in erasing the horror of the tunnel.

Sexual hunger licked its lips, and she had every intention of satisfying it tonight.
What if the bloodlust—
No, she wouldn’t ruin this time with Utah. She would control what needed controlling and let everything else fly free.

She’d barely settled down before he climbed in beside her. He propped himself up and leaned over her. His hair fell forward to shadow his face, and for a moment, she was reminded of how much she didn’t know about this man.

But then she dismissed the thought. She knew the important stuff. He cared enough for her to put aside his hatred of vampires, and she . . . ? Was she willing to say the word yet? She didn’t know.

He smiled. God, he had a beautiful smile. She reached up to trace his lips with the tip of her finger. This would be a slow, wonderful lovemaking building up to—

He nipped the end of her finger. “I don’t know if you’ve looked at the clock, but we’ll have to race the dawn.”

Damn. Well, she’d simply modify her expectations. “I was planning on hours of foreplay, so now we’ll just compress things, make every move count.”

“Fast and ferocious?” His smile turned feral.

“Oh yes.” She grabbed his hair and yanked him down to her. Then she took his mouth with a savagery that surprised her. Did she want him that much? Definitely.

He buried his hands in her hair as her tongue tangled with his. God, she’d walk across hot coals for the taste of him, the scent of him, the drugging
need
for him.

It wasn’t until she felt his tongue trace the length of her fangs that she realized vampire Lia had come out to play. Did that mean she was losing control? She started to pull back.

He held her in place while he slid his tongue over each of them. And when he finally broke the kiss, he held his finger against her lips to keep her quiet. “Shush. Your fangs are a part of who you are now. What’s happening is natural. Hey, you’ve seen my beast. I know about teeth.”

“What do you know about vampires?” She smoothed her hand up and down his arm, feeling the bunched muscles, the tension.

“I asked Jude a lot of dumb questions when I knew you’d be coming back as a vampire.” Utah kissed a line along the bottom of her jaw and down the side of her neck. He paused at the base of her throat. “He told me that vampire orgasms included taking blood.”

She shuddered, desire and anticipation at even the thought fueling a delicious heaviness low in her belly. “I wouldn’t expect you to—”

“It isn’t about what you expect, it’s about what I want to do.” He rolled one nipple between his thumb and finger while he flicked the other with his tongue.

She couldn’t suppress a low moan. “Wow, I love a man in command.”

His soft laughter fanned her skin, setting off more seismic activity down below.

“Just remember that, woman.”

“Mmm.” She slid her hands down his back and over his butt, property that she was considering laying claim to for at least a long-term lease. Lia squeezed his cheeks, feeling them flex beneath her fingers. Then again, everyone said buying was a good investment. And she’d have lots of pride of ownership if she moved in here.

While she’d been thinking about mortgage payments, he’d moved on. He licked a path over her stomach, and she clenched around the slow, hot glide of his tongue across her flesh and the cool fan of air against her damp skin.

Lia knew where he was headed and totally agreed with his travel plans, but she had a few out-of-the-way places she wanted to explore first.

She tugged at his hair to get his attention. “Hey, move over. I want to drive for a while.”

He raised one brow. “You’ll wander down every side street. I like the direct route.”

Lia glared. “Too bad. I’m taking control.”

She wrapped her arms around him, rolled him over, and climbed on top of him. Preternatural strength was amazing. She was queen of the whole freaking universe.

“Not so fast.” He was on top again.

Before she knew it, Lia was wrestling with him. But somewhere between the neck scissors and the octopus hold, playfulness gave way to heat and intensity.

He’d propped himself up against the headboard while she knelt between his legs. His hair was tousled and his skin was damp from his exertion. His eyes gleamed with laughter. Right now, he didn’t look like a guy with the soul of an ancient predator or humanity’s last chance for survival. He looked young, gorgeous, and as sexy as a man could look.

She didn’t say anything as she nudged his legs farther apart. Lia met his gaze and watched his eyes lose their laughter as they darkened with something hot and hungry. She knew her own eyes must look the same.

Dawn was near. Urgency whispered in her ear.
Now, now, now.
She had to cram all the touching, the tasting, the
everything
into such a short time.

Almost feverishly, she skimmed her fingers up the inside of his thigh, felt his muscles flex, and leaned forward to slide her tongue along the same path her fingers had taken. When she reached the top of his thigh, right where she could hear his life force pulsing just below his skin, the blood hunger struck. She resisted. And the denial of her need was a sexual thing in itself. Lia dared dance in temptation’s path as she twirled the tip of her tongue over his skin at the exact spot where his blood flowed strongest.

He smoothed his fingers over her hair with hands that shook. “If you keep that up, the dawn won’t be the only thing coming.”

She didn’t acknowledge his complaint. Instead, she ran her tongue around each of his sacs and continued up the long, hard length of his cock.

He shuddered, and the shudder became her own.

She closed her lips over the head and then swirled her tongue around and around and around. She closed her eyes to savor the tactile sensations—smooth, warm, male.

He groaned, and she deepened the sensations, taking more and more of him, and then retreating. Imitating the rhythm of sex, she felt the slide of his hard flesh in and out, in and out.

The rhythm took her, drove her. She wanted more, had to have more.

He gripped her hair and tugged her away from him. “It’s time.”

“You’ve been strangely compliant.” Her words felt thick in her throat, her twin hungers surging, her mind twisting into heated coils of need—for his body, his blood.

“Not compliant.
Waiting.
” He made a move to pull her under him.

“No.” She pushed him back. “This is my time, my ride.” Leaning down, she whispered in his ear. “The hunt calls, raptor. Come hunt with me.” To soften her demand, she moved so that her breasts just skimmed his chest.

He sucked in his breath even as the pleasure-pain of her sensitized nipples rocked her. Mmm, it felt so good that she did it again.

Utah’s patience came to a sudden end. With a muttered curse, he introduced her to the wild ride. Clasping her bottom in his big hands, he lifted her onto his cock.

“Wait, wait.” When he returned control to her, she lowered herself until she could just feel his cock nudging between her legs. Moisture made her slick and ready. The heavy feeling softened, opened her.

“Not waiting much longer.” He muttered his threat through clenched teeth.

She lowered herself onto him, feeling the stretching, the filling, the incredible sense of another’s body inside hers,
his
body inside hers.

Suddenly, her bloodlust’s howling demon grabbed her, shook her, and growled its demand. She barely held it at bay as she pressed herself down on Utah, taking more and more of him, grinding herself against him. And if she screamed at the almost unbearable friction, the sense of her muscles clenching around him, it was preferable to the alternative—burying her fangs in his throat.

But her bloodlust wasn’t the only one doing some shaking. Utah had grabbed her arms and was shouting at her.

“Look at me. Freaking
look
at me.” He punctuated each word by shaking her.

She was trying, damn it, she was trying. Lia forced herself to meet his gaze, to drag her senses from between her legs and her unblinking stare away from his throat. Were her eyes black? God, she hoped they weren’t red. Not that it mattered. Right now, her thoughts were jumbled, bouncing around in her head with each shake.

“I want you to feed, Lia.”

She blinked. Had she heard him invite her to drink? Was it all a figment of her fevered imaginings? She must’ve looked blank because he said it again.

“This is everything. No yesterday, no tomorrow, just
now
. Drink.”

“I can’t, I . . .”
I might not be able to stop. I might kill you.

He ran a shaking hand over her shoulder, between her breasts and down her stomach. She sucked in a breath she no longer had. He touched her right above where they were joined, rubbing his finger back and forth across the nub that was already way too excited. She jerked and moaned low in her throat at the same time she tried to pull his hand away.

Words were flying away from her as fast as she thought of them, but she had to make him understand. “Afraid. Losing control.”

“Look. At. Me.”

She did.

His beast’s eyes stared back at her. Filled with a primitive hunger that had never known limits and a violent need to satisfy that hunger, his gaze seared her—a heated knife’s edge ready to slice away all that remained of her resistance.

Lia surrendered . . . and released her vampire. Baring her fangs, she rose off him until only his head remained inside her, and then she slammed back down, driving him deep, deep inside her.

No thoughts interrupted her drive to completion. She was working on primitive time. Rise and fall, the slide of his cock inside her ruling every sensation, dragging every gasp and wail from her.

At some point, she realized he was helping, driving up into her. She increased her speed, his penetration, until she felt the wave building and building. No, no. Too soon. Let the dawn catch her. She was going up in flames anyway.

The wave crested. The world stilled. She hung there at the top of it all, able to feel the universe in that one moment.

Then she lowered her head and drove her fangs into his throat. She drank.

She was sliding down, down the back of the wave as it rolled toward the shore, powered by spasms that killed her with each clenching. Blood, rich and sweet, filled her.

As the frenzy eased, and the spasms weakened, something else filled her.
Love.
Yes, she could think the word. And because she loved, she was able to push back the bloodlust and stop drinking. It was as simple as that. Who would’ve thought?

She slid her tongue across his neck, healing the wound, then just lay with her head on his chest listening to the slowing of his heartbeat. And wondered what the hell she was going to do with her discovery.

When his whisper came, she wasn’t prepared for it.

“I love you, vampire. Make sure you understand what I’m saying. I love
you
, all of you, and that includes your crazy dental setup.”

She believed him. Tears slid down her cheek, because she loved him so much it hurt, and because she’d have to wait to say the word back to him. He wouldn’t appreciate her reason for withholding the word, but he hadn’t lived his life with Katherine.

Lia wrapped her arms around him and hugged. She’d never be close enough to him. “You’re more special than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“But not
that
special?”

His voice didn’t accuse, but she felt the sadness in it.

“Wait for me. Just a little while.”

“Why?”

She rolled off him and lay on her side facing him. “I have to work through some things first.”

“You either love or you don’t love.”

He was trying hard to sound reasonable, but she’d bet his beast was laying waste to the civilized part of him, demanding that he knock her over the head and carry her off to his cave. She almost wished he would. It would lift the decision from her slumping shoulders.

“Understand me, raptor. My mother used love to manipulate. She said she loved my father, but all she wanted was a live-in lackey. She never even tried to love me because I could never live up to her standards. The only thing she ever loved was power, with a little left over for her favorite vampires, the ones who were vicious enough to live up to her expectations.”