Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) (30 page)

She stroked his wet hair, running her fingers though it, feeling calm inside now. Could he feel that in her? Did he know that she wasn’t really frightened of him?

“It will not save you.” He pulled her closer to him and rested his head more heavily on her shoulder. He sounded tired and felt it too. Not normal tiredness but a deep weariness. Was he weary of being lonely? Was that why he so desperately wanted to keep her with him? He didn’t want her to leave and he feared that she would. “Your belief in me… it will not save you. I am a slave to my instincts… you make me a beast and I cannot fight it. I want you.”

Amber closed her eyes and tilted her head so her cheek brushed his jaw.

“So take me,” she whispered.

Kearn tensed.

Amber remembered saying that to him through her blood the night he had healed her neck.

Stay with me forever.

She didn’t say it aloud but sent the message through her blood and her body to him.

If it would ease his pain for only a moment, she would give herself to him. All she would ask in return was that he didn’t discard her as the other Nobles did when they turned a human, but rather cherished her as Duke Montagu had said she would be by her Noble.

Amber pushed Kearn back and looked deep into his eyes. She touched his cheek, stroked his jaw, and caressed his lower lip, all the while thinking about what it would be like to be with him forever. She sent the message to him again, expressing without words that it had been her desire she had uttered that night, not his.

His lips parted.

She dipped her thumb in and her heart beat so hard against her chest that it felt as though it would smash through her ribs. He became very still and opened his mouth to her. She stared at his fangs, scared but excited, and ran her index finger down one, from the root to the tip. She was careful not to cut herself. He wouldn’t want it to happen that way.

He needed to bite her neck, to do it that way, not by accident. It had to be special to him.

He shook beneath her wandering fingers, his red eyes fixed on her mouth. She swept her fingertip along his lower lip again and his breath shuddered against it.

“You do not know what you do to me,” he whispered. “How hard this is for me.”

“I know.” She saw it in his eyes and felt it in his blood. His need ran through her, so deep and strong that it stirred her own, and she knew that it was the reason he had become so possessive and dominant. It wasn’t about her blood. It wasn’t just what she made him feel or want to do. It was that she had ended his loneliness and he was afraid to go back there. He needed her, and his blood whispered that he couldn’t live without her. He didn’t have to.

Amber leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, reassuring him without words that she understood and could come to accept this too. She wouldn’t fight him if he gave her the reassurance she craved.

He returned the kiss, his mouth moving slowly against hers, and she smiled when their tongues met and she realised his fangs had receded. His tongue brushed hers, soft and sensual, his gentle kiss brimming with love and warming her heart. Her whole body lightened, her fear melting away, leaving only deep affection flowing through her. Not only her feelings, but his too, joined within their blood, leaving them open to each other. The strength of them gave her a sliver of the reassurance she needed from him, but it still wasn’t enough to convince her to step into his world. She needed more from him. She needed to know that his heart belonged to her before she gave hers in return.

The kiss ended too soon. He drew back, his green eyes full of the mixture of awe, gratitude and love that she could feel within his blood.

“I must go out.” His tone was distant as though he didn’t want to and she nodded.

She had known the moment he had brought her here that he was going to do this. It seemed as though he couldn’t hide anything from her anymore. His blood had made it clear to her, relaying his thoughts throughout their journey and some he’d had at the house. It had told her that he wanted to keep her here, where it was safe.

“You will be fine here. I will lock the doors.” He placed another kiss on her lips and then he was gone.

Amber stared at the empty room in front of her.

Her fingers stroked her neck.

The thought of becoming a vampire frightened her.

But not as much as the thought of being parted from Kearn.

If she was going to be with him, she had to walk in his world and leave her own behind.

She had to become like him, give herself to him, and trust that he would surrender his heart to her in exchange.

She had to.

She loved him.

CHAPTER 21

I
t was a delicious dream. Each detail of it slipped through Amber’s fingers the moment it had passed but she knew Kearn was in it and that he had bitten her again. She smiled at him and he returned it, full of brilliant warmth and happiness. Would he smile like that for her when she was like him? She was insane to be considering it but the marks on her throat were always there in her dreams. She wanted it or she wouldn’t keep dreaming it.

A sense of awareness rolled through her followed by an unsettled feeling.

She fluttered her eyes open and frowned across the bright sunlit room to Kearn where he stood in the doorway, bare-chested and watching her.

Amber sat up, holding the covers to her naked body with her right arm and propping herself up with the other.

He looked irresistible like that, wearing only his black trousers and leaning back so every muscle on his pale torso was on show. Her gaze trailed over his body, the sight of it stirring arousal in her as much as her dream had.

She had fallen asleep in this room before he had returned. Now it was day. How long had he been gone? He looked tired in his face but his eyes were alert, burning into her. They dropped to her neck and she touched it. She had bandaged it again so it wouldn’t stir him when he came back. His gaze moved on, gliding sensually down over her chest and remaining there. It felt as though he was looking straight through to it to her heart.

“Couldn’t you sleep?” she whispered and his eyes leapt to hers.

He said nothing.

He stalked towards her, kneeled on the end of the bed and crawled up the cream duvet towards her.

Amber leaned back, her head hitting the pillows and her arm still clutching the covers to her chest.

“What are you doing?” She stared into his eyes. They narrowed on her and a smile tugged at his lips. Her stomach fluttered at that look and the fire in it. She knew exactly what he was doing.

He reached her and knelt with his hands either side of her head, splayed out against the pillows, trapping her beneath him. His green gaze held hers.

“I am going to make love to you.” The way he said it stole her breath away.

There was such passion in his voice, such hunger that rippled through her in response, that she almost closed her eyes to savour it.

He wasn’t asking her permission to make love with her. He was going to seduce her even if she said no and for some reason she was fine with that. She wanted it but feared it at the same time. If they did this then it would change her completely. There would be no going back.

She would never be the same.

And neither would he.

Her eyes slipped shut the second his lips touched hers in a searing caress that claimed her breath and made her heart explode against her chest. She released the blanket and wrapped her arms around his, moaning when his body settled on top of hers. The weight of him was divine and everything she had dreamed. She no longer cared if this changed them. She didn’t want to go back to a world without him anyway.

He kissed down her jaw, devouring her and making her tremble. She tilted her head up, eager for more, and shivered when he pressed a long kiss to the bandage on her throat and then leaned his cheek against hers.

“Do not fear,” he whispered into her ear, his breath soft and warm, tickling her and heightening her arousal. “I am in control, and if I lose it, I will leave for now… but I need you.”

His weight was gone from her. She opened her eyes, settling them on him as he closed the pale bedroom curtains and then undid his belt. This was really happening. He was going to make love to her. Every inch of her hummed with desire and called to him, begging him to come to her and be one with her at last—to live out their dreams and the visions they had shared through their blood.

She wasn’t afraid when he stripped, revealing his hard length and toned thighs, and she wasn’t afraid when she pulled the covers back to expose herself to him and invite him into the bed. She feared none of it. Not even the thought that he might lose control. She wanted this moment too much. She wanted it enough to risk the consequences of surrendering to her desire. In the heat of the moment, if he couldn’t stop his urge to bite her, she wouldn’t be able to stop him either. She would want it.

She would welcome it.

Kearn lay against her and she tossed the duvet over him. The feel of his bare body against hers was delicious. Warm and hard. She looped her arms around his neck and drew his mouth down to hers. He groaned when she kissed him, her lips playing lightly against his and her tongue stroking the seam of his mouth, and opened to her. Their tongues brushed, each caress stoking the fire that had ignited in her veins.

His hand claimed her left breast, his thumb circling the nipple until it was hard and aching for more, sending shivers of tingles through her body from its centre. She moaned into his mouth and writhed against him, her thighs rubbing together to make the most of the sweet moist feeling between them. She wanted him. She needed him inside her.

He pushed the covers back and lowered his mouth from hers to her neck, kissing it while he grazed the backs of his fingers downwards over her stomach towards the apex of her thighs.

“Amber,” he whispered against her throat between kisses.

His fingers lazily stroked her thighs, teasing her with their proximity. She wriggled her hips and he pinned her right side with his body, his hot hardness pressing against her, trapped between them. The feel of it increased her hunger for him. Just the thought of him inside her was making her crazy with passion.

“Amber,” he said again and licked just below her jaw.

Did he want to bite her?

He kissed across her chest and up the other side of her throat, his mouth hovering there over the cut. She swallowed and trembled. Her hand went to the bandage but he caught her wrist and pushed himself up.

“Don’t you want my blood?” she whispered, confused as to why he had stopped her. She had thought he would want it now more than ever—that he would want her blood as well as her body.

He shook his head, sending the silver threads of his hair swaying, and his green eyes narrowed on hers.

“No… I want you like this.” He released her hand and ran his over her left breast. She arched into him, pressing into his palm and sighing at the feel of it against her. “I do not want you while I am under the influence of your blood… never like that.”

She stared into his eyes and felt the truth in her blood. He meant it. She smiled, threaded her fingers into the hair at the back of his head and lured him down for a kiss, rewarding him with it and hoping he could sense how he had made her feel. She was warm all over, heated not by arousal but by the thought that he wanted this to be about their feelings rather than his hunger for her blood.

His hand glided down over her stomach and she groaned into his mouth when he covered her mound with it, his fingers dipping in to tease her.

Amber surrendered to him when he deepened the kiss, stoking the flames in her and making her melt into the bed beneath him. His tongue played with hers, keeping tempo with his fingers as they combined to take her out of her mind. Her body tightened and she tensed, making the most of each sweep of his fingertips over her most sensitive flesh.

He lowered his hand at the same time as he lowered his mouth. His lips claimed her left nipple, drawing it into his mouth, and his fingers slid down to her slick opening and eased inside. His deep groan filled the silence. She unleashed a moan of her own as he buried his long fingers inside her welcoming body and screwed her eyes shut.

“I need you,” Kearn whispered against her chest between hungry kisses, his voice full of urgency that echoed within her.

She could sense his need and it matched her own. She was too hot, burning too fiercely for him. She needed him now, wanted her first climax with him to be when they were as one, their bodies finally together in the way she had ached for since meeting him.

Amber ran her hands down his strong back and shifted her hips against his, rubbing his hard length with them. He moaned again and sucked her nipple, palming her other breast with his hand.

“I want you,” she uttered and arched into his hungry mouth.

His knee pushed her legs apart and her heart fluttered at the thought of him filling her, his body moving against hers. Her groin throbbed and ached. He moved between her knees and covered her with his body, his mouth reclaiming hers with a searing kiss that sent her temperature soaring. She matched his passion, her teeth clashing with his as she tried to release the need building inside her and find relief. His tongue swept over hers, caressing it in a sexy way that made her grind her hips against his, rubbing herself on his length. Sparks chased through her, warmth skittering over her skin at the feel of him pressed against her sensitive flesh and the thought of what was to come.

He moved back and she froze as sense reared its ugly head.

She gripped his shoulders and he looked at her, green eyes full of confusion as to why she had stopped him.

“Do we need protection?”

Mood killer.

He smiled a brilliant smile.

“No.” He moved back to her mouth, pressing light kisses to it. “A human and a vampire are not compatible like that. When you become a vampire, you will be fertile to me.”

If he hadn’t been kissing her so sensually, sending her out of her mind, she would have been coherent enough to pick him up on his presumption. She might not want to become a vampire. She might run away from him before it could happen.