Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) (35 page)

“What is it?” Tenderness shone in her eyes. She smiled and reached out to him. His heart melted. She was reaching to him even when his eyes were red and his fangs sharp. He had never met such a beautiful woman.

He abandoned his desire to kiss her all over and lay on top of her, seeking her warmth. She gently wrapped her arms around him and he rested his head against her breasts. Her heart beat steadily against his ear.

His heart.

Her blood called to him and his heart obeyed, coming to meet hers, until they were beating together. It was dizzying to experience such a fast beat but he wanted to be one with her completely. He wanted them to be forever as one.

“Kearn?” she whispered and he murmured his reply. He grazed her stomach with his fingertips and then placed his hand over her right breast. He thumbed her nipple, feeling incredibly content lying naked in her arms. “If you want to…”

Her heart gave a harder beat against his ear.

He pushed himself up onto his right elbow.

Scarlet touched her cheeks.

She didn’t have to finish her sentence. Her blood whispered it to him. He refused to let his gaze fall to her neck. He wouldn’t bite her. Not yet. His fangs receded and his eyes changed back to green. He felt a spark of hurt in her but it disappeared when he smiled.

“Not now.” He leaned over and claimed her lips with his. Perhaps he would explore her from the top down instead. He poured his feelings into the kiss and allowed her to sense them in his blood. Love, happiness, contentment, possession, desire and awe at what she had offered him. He showed it all to her so she would know what it meant to him. He would take it one day, but not today.

He had only changed because he had bitten her too hard with his blunt teeth. He wouldn’t make that mistake again and risk her. When he bit her, it would be special, the start of their new life together. Her new life. He would make it a moment she would want to remember forever.

Amber kissed him deeper and took control. Her hands skimmed down his back, warm on his skin, and she brought her leg up, her knee caressing his hip. Awareness of where his hips were spread through him.

A shallow thrust of them elicited a delightful moan from her, breathed into his mouth. He did it again.

“Kearn,” she uttered against his lips and he felt every ounce of her need in his name. He would satisfy her hunger in time. For now, he wanted to drown in her sweet lips and her soft caress.

Her hands roamed up his back and then down his arms, curling around his biceps. She brought his hand to her breasts and moulded it over her right. He took the hint and broke away from her lips to worship it. She groaned and arched when he sucked her right nipple into a hard peak. His tongue flicked the bead and her fingers threaded into his hair, clutching him against her.

He denied her, moving downwards, kissing the subtle planes of her stomach. Her fingers left his hair and he looked up to see her grasping the pillows. Her teeth teased her lower lip. The sight of it made him growl with the urge for her blood. She didn’t release her lip as he had expected. Her teeth remained firmly planted in it. His vision sharpened and her pupils dilated, her eyes darkening with hunger.

Did the sight of his red eyes arouse her? What fantasy was she living out in her mind? He tried to tell from her blood but it only whispered to go on, to do what he wanted with her.

Kearn did so without changing his eyes back. The sight of them aroused her and he wanted her to scream his name when she climaxed. If touching her when he was half in his vampire guise would make it more pleasurable for her, he would remain like it.

He skimmed his hands over her thighs and spread her legs. His eyes met hers again and her cheeks blazed. Her blush sent a pulse of desire shooting down to his groin and he groaned, his hard length straining for contact with her. He wanted to fill her up and take out his growing hunger on her body, ravaging it.

Instead, he lowered himself to her and kissed the neat triangle of curly hair, working his way downwards. He slipped his fingers in and opened her to him. The heat of her arousal and her sweet scent tore another groan from him and he swept his tongue over her, hungrily devouring her. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more of her than this. All of her.

He flicked his tongue over her pert nub, loving the way she gasped with each contact. Her fingers tangled in his hair again, grasping it tightly and holding him to her. He wasn’t going anywhere. He licked her, mercilessly teasing her body, and she moaned his name. He needed more. He slid his hand down and growled when he slipped his middle finger into her warm core and pumped slowly. She was so wet. He ached to replace his finger with his cock. She tensed around him and he barely held it together. He thrust harder, inserting a second finger, and groaned at how tight she was around them.

Kearn devoured her. He tasted every inch of her, suckling and becoming rougher as his hunger to be inside her built. She bucked her hips, riding his fingers. His erection throbbed each time they slid into her. Her moans filled the room, urging him on, and she tugged his hair.

She stiffened, her hips rising off the bed, and then jerked with a loud cry of his name as she climaxed. Her warm body pulsed around his fingers and he shuddered at the delicious feeling.

Amber released his hair, relaxed into the bed, and stretched out. Her contentment ran in his veins, causing his own need to abate. He watched her, smiled, and enjoyed the sight of her so thoroughly satisfied. He would make her like this forever. Every day he would send her into a deep sleep after making love to her for hours. He would never tire of it.

He crawled up the length of her and her hazel eyes opened. They shone with happiness. He smiled again when she stroked his cheek, his brow and then his lips. The touch spoke volumes, all of it about love.

Kearn eased back, took hold of his erection, and positioned it. He slid slowly into her, joining their bodies peacefully this time, and she sighed. Her arms encircled his neck and she brought his head down. She kissed him as he moved deep within her at a gentle pace, and her feelings spread through him. Her blood conveyed everything she felt as his communicated back to her, joining them completely until they were both feeling the same thing. Bliss. Happiness. Love.

He had never felt so content and as though he belonged anywhere as much as he felt he belonged there, inside her, alone with her, as one.

He kissed her softly, revering her and the emotions she evoked within him. With each thrust of his body into hers, he told her through his blood that he loved her.

Amber moaned and he felt the change in her blood, felt her respond to him as her hand grazed his face, her emotions those of tenderness and deep affection. She loved him too. She wanted to be with him forever.

He closed his eyes and held her close to him, until their skin stuck together with the heat of their lovemaking and his heart felt as though it couldn’t take any more and would burst with their combined feelings. He moved deeper inside her, capturing her moans with his lips, savouring the sound of each one.

Her body tightened and her blood begged him to make her climax again and to find release within her. He gritted his teeth and pressed his cheek to hers, struggling to control his hunger to thrust harder so he could bring her to a sweet climax, one full of love.

Amber moaned into his ear, uttering his name in a way that drew a groan from him. Her heart beat in time with his, slow and steady. Soon it would always beat as his did. Soon he would have her completely. She would be always his. Forever. Eternally. His Amber.

She bucked up against him and arched into his chest, moaning her release. Her body pulsed around his, luring him to his own climax. He plunged deeper, harder now, his body tight and ready, and his desire pushing him onwards. Close.

Amber kissed his shoulder, his neck, teased him until he was on the brink of insanity and surrendering to his desire to take her roughly. He needed to come. It felt as though he was going to explode.

She saw to it that he did. Her lips brushed his shoulder and then she bit gently.

Kearn’s eyes shot wide and he jerked hard inside her, his length throbbing with his release, spilling his seed into her waiting body. He trembled and collapsed against her, aware of the point where her teeth still pressed into his flesh.

She had bitten him.

He breathed hard against her throat. The smell of her blood wafted back at him. His fangs extended.

He had seen her as a vampire above him, moving on his hard length, her head thrown back in pleasure. She had leaned over him, her teeth sharp, and he had bared his neck to her because it was forever hers and hers alone. She had sunk her fangs into him and he had experienced his first bite.

“Kearn?” She stroked his back in slow gentle circles as though seeking to soothe him.

His blood was rampant, speaking words to her that were probably frightening. He wanted her to sink her fangs into his throat so he could wear her marks and everyone would see that they were together, eternally bonded, exclusively each other’s.

“You okay?”

He stared at her neck and the bandage on it. He wanted to taste her.

Her fingers appeared in view. She untied the bandage and pulled it down. His gaze shifted to the cut on her neck. His neck. His and his alone. He would heal it for her and look after her forever so she would never be hurt again.

“You can if you want to,” she whispered and her blood backed up her words. She wasn’t trembling because she was scared. She trembled out of desire. She wanted him to take her blood again.

He wouldn’t bite her though.

He would only calm his hunger and strengthen the bond between them.

Kearn retracted his fangs, closed his eyes and licked the length of the cut. She hissed out her pleasure and he licked it again. It was still bleeding in spots. He covered it with his mouth and sucked to reopen the wound. Amber held him closer, one hand against his back and the other on the nape of his neck. She cradled him to her, giving herself to him, body and soul, and he felt awed.

Honoured.

He held his fangs at bay and sucked harder, until blood trickled into his mouth, sending his mind swimming and reigniting his lust. He held that in too, unwilling to become a slave to his desires when under the influence of her blood. He would never do that. They would only ever be together because of their feelings, not because he was drunk on her blood. He drank deep, satisfying his need for her. The connection grew stronger, until he easily felt her emotions and her heart beat in his veins. They hadn’t gone this deep before. Would it frighten her? She would feel everything he did and his heart beating within her. She would know him wholly. He wouldn’t be able to hide anything from her.

Her mind would be open to him.

And his would finally be open to hers.

With this much of her blood in him, he wouldn’t be able to deny her or close the connection, not until it began to fade again.

He stopped drinking and licked the cut, cleaning every drop of blood off her neck and sealing the wound.

Amber held him as she had done the night he had told her that he would bite her, embracing him and accepting him without words. He kissed her throat and reaffixed the bandage, and then leaned his head on her shoulder, fatigue washing through him. He could sleep like this forever with her—his body half on hers, naked against each other, content.

She placed a kiss on the tip of his nose with the corner of her mouth, sighed and rubbed it. She was tired too. He listened to her blood and drifted away with it into a deep sleep.

When he woke, he would meet with Archduke Pendragon and discover what he knew about the vial and the man he was after.

Until then, he would rest soundly in the arms of his woman for the first time, safe from the world and content at last with his duty and life.

CHAPTER 25

“
W
ake up, Amber.”

The voice drifted into her mind through pleasant dreams, shaking her from sleep. She frowned and rolled over. She didn’t want to wake up. It felt so nice under the covers, warm and relaxing, and the dream was so good that she wanted to catch it and bring it back.

“Amber.” Someone shook her.

Her eyes fluttered open. Kearn stood over her, dressed in his black shirt and trousers, with his hair wet as though he had showered.

“What is it?” She rolled over again.

“We have to leave.” Kearn caught her arm and pulled her into a sitting position.

There was worry in his green eyes.

“Has something happened?”

“We are not safe here.” He pulled her out of the bed and shoved her clothes at her. “Get dressed.”

She frowned when he left the room, rubbed the sleep from her eyes and tried to figure out what was going on. Had something happened with the archduke? The curtains were open and it was night outside. She threw on her jeans and hooded top, zipping it up over her chest, and then put on her shoes.

Kearn came back in, his holster around his shoulders now and the gun in his hand. The marks on his right arm weren’t glowing. The man couldn’t have come for her. Kearn would have been using his power if he had.

“Did something happen with the archduke?” she said and Kearn didn’t reply.

He took hold of her hand and led her down through the house to the door. He held it open for her and she walked out into the night. It was pitch-black save the single light emanating from the door behind her and the distant house. She went to go to Audi and Kearn grabbed her arm, tugging her right instead.

There was another car there. A large black Bentley with a dark haired female driver.

“Why aren’t we taking the Audi?”

Kearn opened the rear door of the Bentley for her and held it. She stopped and looked back at the Audi. It seemed strange that he was leaving it behind.

“Where are we going?” She looked up into his eyes. They were dark, emotionless except a spark of anger that she couldn’t feel in him.

In fact, she couldn’t feel anything in him.

He had taken her blood last night and the connection between them had run so deeply that she had been aware of him as though he was a part of herself. Now she couldn’t feel anything. Had he shut her out again?