Eternal Seduction (8 page)

When she reached the end of the hallway, she flattened herself against the wall and peeked around the corner. Odin, with a rag stuffed in his mouth, made all manner of odd noises while Kerestyan, eyes twinkling under the gentle track lighting, twisted a black wine bottle setting in one of the odd appliances she didn’t recognize.

Reminiscent of a fancy silver bowl, instead of tapering near the bottom the machine belled out into black rubber feet. The digital panel centered on the front read 88.2, but the glowing red numbers quickly changed. When the contraption emitted a loud beep as the number reached 99.0, Kerestyan pulled the bottle out, popped the cork then handed it to Odin.

“Warmed to your distinguished preference, Sir,” Kerestyan laughed, with a bad English accent.

Odin pulled the towel from his mouth, grabbed the bottle and wrapped his lips around it like a hooker who’d just been paid five thousand dollars to suck off a professional athlete.

Logan mulled the scene over for a minute. This was what they were doing? She’d been herded back to her room for a time-out so they could laugh like idiots and drink themselves into a wine induced stupor?

At least it’s not whiskey.
She shivered as an icy chill slipped down her spine in response to the errant thought. At thirteen, she may not have known how to properly express how she felt to her father. Now thirty, her prowess for self expression was quite the opposite.

She pushed around the corner and locked eyes with Kerestyan. “This is why you sent me to my room? So you and your brother could get wasted in the kitchen?”

Every ounce of humor drained from his face. “It’s not what it looks like, Logan.”

Odin’s lips popped off the bottle. “Op. Ot wuh eh ooks ike ah aww.” He closed his eyes for a second, smacked his lips together then stuck his tongue out to a dull point and wiggled it. Eyes wide, his head bobbed from side to side then back before he righted it and smiled. “Ahh, much better.”

Logan stood still for a moment while her brain tried to reconcile his idiotic movements. “What in the hell was that? How much of that stuff have you had?”

He set the bottle on the counter and spun it. “It only takes one. That’s some good shit, Baby.”

Ignoring the fact he’d called her something other than it or Bones, she snatched up the wobbling vintage and tipped it to her mouth. If the wine was good enough for them, it was definitely good enough for her.

Besides, maybe her father had been right. Maybe all of life’s answers were at the bottom of a bottle.

Closing her eyes, she parted her lips and let the liquid surround her tongue.

“Logan!”

“Shut up! Let her do it. It’s kinda kinky.”

Logan wrinkled her nose as her taste buds caught up with her. Hot and coppery, it didn’t take her long to figure out what the distinct metallic taste reminded her of…

Being punched in the nose, that’s what it reminded her of.

She swallowed the thick fluid, waited a moment to make sure it would stay down, and then gently set the bottle back on the counter.

“That was fuckin’ hot! Kerestyan, get out another bottle!”

She opened her eyes and stared at Odin, whose face was lit up like a Gothic Christmas tree. “You could’ve warned me.”

“And miss watching you do that?” He wiggled a finger in front of her nose. “Oh, no. No way.” He lowered his hand and rubbed it affectionately over his stomach. “Watching humans drink blood gets my monster all excited. You want some more?”

“Your monster?” She eyed his leather covered groin. “Please tell me you didn’t name it.”

He kicked his head back and laughed. “No.
He
would have a much more imposing name.” He poked at his abdomen. “I’m talking about my beast. He drives the scary, predatory vampire side of me. You know, the animal that craves blood and power and ultimate control. But he’s also really old and kinda jaded, and
loves
watching humans do things they shouldn’t.” He pushed the bottle closer. “You sure you don’t want more?”

When her mouth took on the texture of sandpaper, Logan licked her lips. It didn’t taste horrible, and she had to admit it even had a sweet yet slightly tangy quality, but there was something about swallowing a mouthful of blood that made her feel a little queasy.

She pushed the bottle back towards him. “No thanks. I think one shot is enough for today.”

“Oh, come on. Admit it. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Have I tasted worse? Yes, a lot of rotten things taste a whole hell of a lot worse than that. But, there’s just something wrong about standing in such a normal looking kitchen, drinking blood with two vampires.”

Logan rubbed a hand across her cheek. Of course, there was something fundamentally wrong with standing in a kitchen with two vampires to begin with.

She studied the dark blue floor tiles as a shiver worked its way down the back of her neck. There was also something seriously wrong when one of those vampires made her more aware of her body than she’d been in a long time.

When she heard Odin laugh again, she looked up just in time to see him wave a hand in front of Kerestyan’s face. “Kerestyan, you still alive over there man?”

She glanced over at Kerestyan and frowned. His irises were an odd mixture of sapphire and onyx, lit from behind a sheet of glass. “Are you alright?” She stepped closer to him. “Your eyes are almost as dark as Odin’s.”

“I’m fine.” It was the way his lips parted when he formed the “f” that allowed her to see a quick flash of his fangs.

She stared at his mouth for a minute, trying to recall the moment he’d gotten so close to her in the alley. Were they out then? Had they always been there?

She couldn’t remember.

A low, evil chuckle rumbled in Odin’s throat, drawing her attention away from Kerestyan’s dental irregularity. He grinned wide, no fangs present. “Well, this is a good time for me to leave. Bones, your clothes are in the duffle bag out in the living room.” He smacked the back of Kerestyan’s shoulder. “Little brother, behave yourself.” Then, just like he did before, he vanished from the room.

Logan blinked a few times then turned to Kerestyan. “Do vampires even need cars?”

“It depends on their age.” There they were again, flashing between his soft lips like razor blades under a strobe light.

Most intriguing.
She allowed curiosity to get the better of her and moved even closer. “Do they have holes in the bottoms?”

He snatched the bottle from the counter then turned his back to her and tucked it into a cabinet under the sink. “Do what have holes in the bottom?”

“Your fangs, Lord Vampire. Do you suck blood through them like a straw? How does it work?”

He braced his hands against the edge of the sink, his shoulder blades bunching together in a tantalizing ripple of muscle. “No, my fangs don’t have holes in the bottoms.”

Logan kicked her foot back and dragged out one of the stools surrounding the center island. She sat down and leaned forward, resting her hands on the leather seat between her legs. “Then how does it work?”

He exhaled a loud, obviously irritated breath. “After I bite my prey, I slide my fangs from the wound and drink until sated. When finished, I either lick or touch the wound to heal it. The human goes on their way and I go on mine. The end.”

She scrunched up her face. “That’s all? You make it sound so…so impersonal. I thought eating for vampires was supposed to be all sexy and seductive.”

His shoulders tensed again. “Do you strive to form an emotional connection with every cow you consume?”

“Oh, that’s a cheap excuse. I can’t talk to a cow.” She laughed. “Well, I thought I could once. The cow ended up being part of a billboard and it only talked to me because of a bad batch of mushrooms.” When he didn’t appear to find her comment nearly as funny as she did, she moved on. “So how do you get a human to let you bite them? Do they know you do it? Do you go out on a date, or do you just grab one and chow down?”

He spun around to face her, his dark eyes narrowed. “What do you want me to tell you, Logan? That I dress up in tight leather pants and prowl the clubs for a beautiful woman? That when I find one, I stalk her from the shadows until the power of my Ancient blood draws her to me? That once it does, because it always does, I take her home and fuck her until she comes so hard she can barely breathe? And in the second before she does, I sink my fangs into her fragile neck? That when her body shudders and she’s lost in the best sensations she’ll ever feel, I taste every single ripple of pleasure coursing through her blood? That I get off on the rich taste of her just as hard as she gets off on me? Is that what you want me to tell you?”

Logan opened her mouth then closed it; her mind clouded with images of black leather, sweat slicked bodies and tangled satin sheets. Her ears still rang from the way he’d said the first real curse word she’d heard him use, and the deep inflection he put on it. She’d never heard it sound so enticing, so damn inviting.

Water. She needed lots of cold, so cold it’d turn your insides to ice, kind of water.

She watched the corners of Kerestyan’s lips rise ever so slightly as his eyes moved over her neck, then down and across her borrowed shirt. “Perhaps that’s exactly what you wanted me to tell you.”

She folded her arms. So what if her nipples felt like they were going to jump off her chest and slingshot themselves at him? And really, whose fault was it that she’d just added a brand new scent to his pajama pants since she hadn’t had any clean underwear to put on after her bath?

It certainly wasn’t hers.

She might have been detached from the world, but she was still a flesh and blood woman, and her brain was still very much attached to every nerve in her body.

She swallowed the large knot in her throat. “I…well,” she paused when he smiled and glared back at him. “You said all that on purpose! You’re a bastard. That little rant was unbelievably unnecessary and completely uncalled for.”

In the space of a single heartbeat, his smile turned dangerous at the edges. “So was your licking your lips after setting the bottle of blood back on the counter.” He moved towards her, the powerful muscles of his thighs flexing underneath the dark material of his pants. “You didn’t get it all, you know.”

Logan raised a hand to wipe her mouth, but jumped when Kerestyan caught her wrist before she could follow through. She stared up into his marbled eyes as he nudged her thighs apart with his own. Her heart slammed against her ribs.

Oh no, he isn’t. He is…

He leaned down, lips hovering barely above hers. “Which part was it, Logan?” The heat from his breath and the moisture on his bottom lip caught and tugged at hers. “Was it the biting that stirred you…or the fucking?”

She silently cursed her dependence on oxygen when her lips parted to allow the sharp inhale of air she was sure she’d die without. Her thighs trembled as the strong fingers of his free hand circled the wrist still folded over her chest.

Good Lord, how was she supposed to breathe with him so close?

She gasped, her thoughts scattering in a thousand different directions when he pushed her arms behind her, forcing her spine into an arch. Her nipples tightened even more, caught between the soft fabric of her shirt and his hard chest.

Flames raced across her skin as he pinned her wrists to the small of her back, then tautly sucked on her upper lip. She swallowed a moan as his warm tongue caressed the sensitive flesh inside. He took his time, teasing her with a half kiss that made her legs shake.

If this was what he did to the women he ate, she was sure he’d never go hungry.

“I think,” he went quiet and pinched her bottom lip between his teeth, “it was the fucking.” A deep growl rumbled in his chest when her legs jumped in response to the mind blowing sensation. “But I think there’s a definite interest in the biting.”

A traitorous moan, loud and throaty, escaped as he dragged his fangs across her lower lip. Tiny, passion fueled fires erupted inside each cell in her body as those razor sharp tips touched her skin. Her heart pounded a frantic rhythm in her ears. Wetness built in record time between her thighs. She couldn’t stop her eyes from fluttering closed as waves of warmth coursed through her. It was the most pleasurable sensation she’d ever felt. The most erotic moment she’d ever experienced.

But the most delicious taste came when his tongue plunged into her mouth, sliding sinuously over hers. He tasted exactly like he smelled. Tangy but sweet. Smoky and earthy. Sexy. The way a man should taste, but more savage somehow.

Lost in the tantalizing friction of Kerestyan’s tongue tangling with hers, Logan didn’t realize he’d released her wrists until his warm hands pushed between the stool and her bare ass.

Trying to figure out the exact moment he’d managed to loosen the drawstring became a distant memory as he pulled her forward off the stool. She vaguely felt the satin pool around her knees. The thrust of his tongue, the maddening back and forth motion was all she could focus on as he lifted her up and the pants fell to the floor.

Wrapping both legs around his hips, she broke from his hungry mouth to moan as he pressed her back against the refrigerator. The cold steel of the doors bit into her skin at the same moment he ground the fabric covered ridge of his hard cock against her.

Needing to get to his skin, to feel the heat of him against her, she ripped open his shirt, undaunted as the black buttons turned into tiny missiles. He laughed a husky sound as some hit the floor while others pinged off of various appliances.

She smiled at the sight of his bare chest. Dark hairs dappled his tight, pale skin, tapering to a single line that plunged between a set of rock hard abs, rippling for her viewing pleasure.

No, he would never go hungry. Not in a million years.

His large hands blocked her view a second before he grabbed the hem of her t-shirt, and in one swift motion, tore it right up the front. She gasped as his rough fingers went to work torturing her exposed nipples. Rolling and gently pinching, filling her with a maddening ache she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.