Blood of the Nile (10 page)

“Yes, but
it’s
scorching hot outside. I’m burning up.”

As he set the
glass back down on the table, the ice cubes inside swirled around the bottom of
the glass like a pinwheel. A wicked grin formed on Ramses’ lips as an idea
began to take shape in his mind. He grabbed the bucket of ice, pivoted on his
heels and headed back toward the bed where Maliyah sat. She’d shifted into a
sitting position, cushioned by a half dozen fluffy pillows.

“I think I found
the perfect solution,” Ramses said.

Maliyah’s eyes
widened as he approached. The thick vein on the side of her neck pulsed
erratically as he set the bucket down atop the nightstand and crawled onto the
bed, straddling her thighs. She licked her lips and cocked her head to the left.
“Now you want to play?” she asked tongue and cheek.

“I always want to
play Maliyah, especially with you. Since we’ve gotten a bit of business out of
the way, I’m ready to relax and blow off some steam.” Ramses reached out, using
his fingers to sweep a few stray strands of hair away from her face. As he did
so, his fingers inadvertently brushed against bare flesh, which caused his cool
skin to burn hot. Jerking back for a moment, he recognized the hungry look
reflected in Maliyah’s gaze. The same lustful anticipation had already blindsided
him like the crest of a momentous wave.

For a brief period
of time, they both froze - their faces only inches apart. Ramses felt her heated
breath roll over him, the sensation forcing the fine, black hairs at the base
of his skull to stand on edge. Beads of sweat had gathered there too. Suddenly,
Maliyah wasn’t the only one that needed to cool off. If Ramses didn’t tamp down
his libido, he’d turn her over, fuck her, and drain her blood in ten minutes
flat. But that’s not what he imagined for the first time they’d make love.
Maliyah deserved better.

Ramses took a depth
breath, holding off the flames of desire that flickered and burned inside him.
Ice might help calm me down
.
It could also serve as a form of sensual foreplay
,
he chuckled to himself
.
Fondling a
frigid chunk of ice between his fingers, he let the object partially melt in his
palm. Still, the slight chill did nothing to diminish the hunger that gnawed at
him. His hormones roared with the need to touch her, taste her.

The temptation his
lover possessed soon proved impossible to resist. His fingers reached out to
graze her skin. He slid the icy shard up and down her arms, over the slender
column of her throat, and below the valley that separated her swelled bosom. Already,
her nipples had grown taut, peeking through the thin white garment that covered
her breasts.

At the moment of
contact, Maliyah visibly flinched. Goose bumps broke out on her flawless skin.
But in no time, she settled back against the pillows and sighed.
“Hmm.
That feels good.”

“It’ll feel a whole
lot better once you get those pesky clothes off. Let me help you.” Ramses’ hand
cupped Maliyah’s neck and untied the halter-top of her bathing suit. Her
cleavage sprang from the silky material, free and ready to frolic. Then, Ramses
undid the swath of fabric fettered at her slender waist, leaving her almost
nude.

With the ice cube
hinged between his thumb and index finger, he traced the contours of Maliyah’s
body from head to foot. His hand trembled with need, memorizing each one of her
luscious curves, while his eyes focused on her beautifully flushed face. Ramses
watched the myriad of expressions reflected in her gaze – everything from shy,
self-consciousness to fiery lust.

 
 
The
more he touched her, the more excited he became. His cock throbbed inside the
thin gym shorts he wore.
Ya
Allah
! He wanted her more than life
itself. But he knew, too, that the monster inhabiting his soul would eventually
make its presence known. In the heat of passion, there was no way for Ramses to
hide the fact that he was a vampire. Everything in his being yearned to make
Maliyah scream in pleasure, but with unbridled desire
came
fear and self-doubt. What if the woman in his arms rejected him once she
learned the truth?

He could try to
force her mind to forget what she’d see - haunting, crimson-colored eyes and
fangs as sharp as knives.
Although deep down, that’s not what
Ramses wanted.
Besides, it may not even work. The last time he attempted
to compel her thoughts, he failed miserably. Her will was too strong. Regardless,
he cared about Maliyah and if the chemistry they shared proved any indication,
this would be the first of many nights they’d make love. He refused to erase
her memory each and every time. Sooner or later, she’d find out who and what he
was. Why prolong the inevitable?

Ramses’ right hand
gripped her hip, while his left one pushed aside the scrap of white cloth that
still shielded her sex. With two fingers, he parted her pussy lips. Cold ice
collided with the heat that radiated from Maliyah’s core. His digits delved
deep, ice cubes and all. They pumped inside her womb until a rainstorm of
moisture coated the palm of his hand. Ramses wasn’t sure whether the ice cube had
melted or she’d simply come. Maybe it was a combination of both.

“Oh, yes!”
Maliyah’s ass bucked off the mattress as she tried to quicken the pace of
Ramses’ thrusts. Then she screamed out loud, indicating that an orgasm had
surely been achieved.

Slowly, he removed
his fingers. But Maliyah’s breathing continued to intensify. Air escaped her
lungs in short, labored breaths evidenced by the rise and fall of her chest. Her
gaze pierced Ramses - a desperate, needy plea. At the same time, she rose to
her knees and let the last remnants of her clothing fall away.

Maliyah quivered
as Ramses’ tongue flicked out to taste the tip of one perky nipple. He lashed
at her with bold strokes, then captured the tight rosebud between his puckered
lips and sucked with all his might. His lover gasped. She used her arms to draw
him closer to her breast. But soon Maliyah’s hands began to wander. Her fingers
kneaded the coiled muscles that gathered along the ridge of his spine. They
explored even lower, tracing the wall of Ramses’ abdomen and the slight
indentation of his navel. Eventually, her delicate appendages settled on the
thick band of elastic at his waist.

The tips of her
fingers delved below the surface of his gym shorts, teasing and torturing him
all at the same time. Ramses’ cock pulsed wildly as it thrust against his
lover’s inner thigh. Maliyah giggled softly,
then
tugged on his shorts until his fierce erection had been released. Already a
drop of creamy semen coated its crest.

With one hand, she
took hold of his shaft, squeezing the base in her firm grip. With the other,
she used an index finger to scoop a drop of the potent elixir onto the tip. “So
good,” Maliyah said, licking her lips. “I want more.” Clearly, she enjoyed oral
sex.

The first swipe of
her tongue against the head of his cock nearly forced Ramses to spill his seed.
He ground his teeth and fisted his hands in Maliyah’s hair as her mouth moved
over the wide girth of his shaft. Up and down.
Deep and deliciously
sinful.
She worked her tongue and lips masterfully like a maestro
plucking the strings of a violin. With painstaking precision, she massaged his
cock until its beveled edge reached the back of her throat. She groaned the
sound reverberating through Ramses’ body and sent a fireball of white-hot heat
up from his scrotum, ready to explode.

“Whoa! Slow down,
habibti
,” Ramses’ whispered, rearing back. A loud pop
sounded as the suction from her lips finally released his cock.

Gently, Ramses
pushed Maliyah back until her head rested on a mound of pillows. He spread her
thighs apart with his knees and crawled down her naked body. The lower he moved,
the more fragrant the scent of her sex became. The pungent aroma assailed his
senses, awakening the slumbering beast.

Staring into the
depths of Maliyah’s green-gold gaze, he watched the reflection of his own eyes as
they began to swirl. Their color shifted from warm amber to deep, blood-infused
red. The hands that clutched her hips became elongated. Ten razor sharp claws
emerged, digging into the grooves of her pelvis.

Suddenly,
Maliyah’s eyes widened. The look of horror that emerged on her angelic face
caused Ramses to cringe. The moment of truth was upon him. The time had come to
reveal his true self. He hoped like hell that the two of them had built up
enough trust for her to accept both the man and the beast.

“Everything’s alright.
Please,” Ramses pleaded. He took a step back, giving his lover time and space
to process the monstrosity before her. Still his intense stare never wavered.
It bore into Maliyah, branding her as his mate. “Don’t be afraid.”

Chapter Twelve

The Beast

“What are you?”
Maliyah asked. All of a sudden, her limbs felt like gelatin. She was paralyzed
in place. One minute, she was in the arms of the man of her dreams. The next,
he’d turned into a frightening apparition with red, beady eyes and talons like
that of an inescapable fiend.

“I meant to tell
you long ago. But the time never seemed right. All I ever wanted to do was
protect you. Please you. The same way any mortal man would care for his mate.”

“That doesn’t
answer my question. What are you?” Maliyah swallowed hard. On the outside, fear
and trepidation kept her immobile. Yet inside, her pulse raced wildly and her
heart pounded in her ears. With two simple words, Ramses had claimed her as
“his mate.” For that reason her body had reacted in kind.

“Maliyah, I’m a
vampire. I drink blood in order to survive,” Ramses confessed, his gaze averted
as he muttered the words under his breath. Intuition told her that shame had
shattered her lover’s impenetrable resolve.

“So what…were you
planning to kill me too?”

“You
too?
What the hell does that mean?” The vampire
shook his head vigorously. “I had nothing to do with your father’s death, if
that’s what you’re trying to imply. I cared for Anwar like a brother. Besides,
I value humanity too much. In fact, I’ve done everything in my power to honor
and preserve it.”

With one startling
declaration, all of Ramses’ strange idiosyncrasies instantly made sense. The
way he kept his body covered from head to toe, even in one hundred degree
temperatures.
His sensitivity to sunlight and the fact that
he slept during the day and rarely ventured out before nightfall.
How
could she not have known? All these years, she’d been in love with a vampire.

Reality struck
hard and fast. Maliyah’s mind screamed at her to jump out of bed, throw some
clothes on, and run away as fast as she could. Although in the deep recesses of
her soul, she recognized the sincerity of the man who’d captured her heart both
now and long ago. That fact in and of itself kept her seated on the bed.

Ramses sat a few
feet away, hunched on the edge of the mattress waiting for judgment to be
passed down; the task seemed unavoidable. As seconds ticked by, Maliyah
continued to procrastinate. She couldn’t do it. Not after his haunting eyes had
regained their softer hue. His claws also disappeared, retracting back into his
hands.

Ramses turned his
head to one side and squinted as if trying to gauge her reaction to the
shocking revelation. His dark, wispy hair hung low over his eyes. He looked sad
and lost, and Maliyah wanted to go to him and wrap him in her comforting
embrace. Like a leaf blown from the branch of a tree, she felt scattered and
torn. She had no clue what to do.

 
In the grand scheme of things, Maliyah knew
that finding her father’s killer needed to remain at the forefront of her mind.
A little mindless sex with her teenage crush would have been nice, if only that
had turned out to be the case. But sleeping with a bloodsucking vampire? That
seemed a bit too much for her psyche to bear especially while she was still
grieving.

“Did my father
know the truth?” Maliyah shrunk back against the headboard, almost afraid to
hear his response.

“Yes, he knew. In
fact, he’s the one that saved me from meeting the dawn. I would have burned my
body to oblivion had it not been for Anwar’s compassion and friendship.”

Ramses stood and
began to pace the confines of the hotel room. It was a good thing, too. It gave
Maliyah time to hop off the bed and put some clothes on. The vampire’s deceit
had already left her feeling raw and exposed. Her nakedness only made matters
worse.

Striding across
the room with both arms covering her breasts, Maliyah made her way to the
closet. There she found the soft cotton robe she’d hung shortly after they’d
arrived. As she closed the mirrored door, she peered through it, and watched Ramses’
powerful physique and dark, penetrating eyes stare back at her. His reflection cast
a shadow over the already dim lit space. The man’s striking reflection could be
seen in the mirror, which could only mean one thing - somewhere deep down, his
soul remained intact.