Much Ado About Vampires (37 page)

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Authors: Katie MacAlister

BOOK: Much Ado About Vampires
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Chapter Nineteen
 
 
“Are you sure this is a good idea? There’s a whole bunch of people after us, and they’re bound to know we’re here.” I turned the lock on the door, just to make sure no one could get into our room.
“What people?” Alec asked.
“Eleanor, for one. That lichmaster dude for another.”
“Bah.” He waved them away, moving toward me with a familiar glint to his eye.
“Maybe I should feed you again. You only got enough blood to get your engine running before Pia and Kristoff left to take Ulfur back to Italy with them. I know you’re still hungry.”
“I’ll feed in a bit.”
I hesitated, worry riding uppermost in my mind. “Not only are those vamps still out there, and likely to come back and drag you off to the Akasha, but more importantly, you were literally almost ripped in half. Perhaps we need a bit of caution here. The healer did say that your injuries might take a bit longer to fully heal.”
Alec gave me a sloe-eyed look, and before I could so much as rip off my clothing and fling myself on him, he had me naked and on the bed in one of Sally’s non-Abaddon spare rooms.
“I’m fine,” he answered, rubbing his hips against me, the bulging nature of his fly more than enough proof that he was just as anticipatory as I was. But still, I had to be sure.
“No, seriously, I think we should wait.” It was a feeble protest at best, but I couldn’t in all good conscience give in to the hunger that claimed us both.
“You want me as much as I want you,” he murmured in my ear, his breath hot on my neck, his hands tormenting and teasing me with sensual little touches that immediately aroused my deepest passion. “I know you do. I can feel that you do.”
“I think the fact that I can’t keep my hands off you is a dead giveaway to that little fact,” I said, grabbing his hands to keep them from further investigating my chest.
He stopped nibbling my neck and pulled back enough to frown at me, his beautiful green eyes narrowed slightly. “Why do you reject me?”
“I’m not rejecting, just delaying, and I’m doing that because I want to make sure that you’re OK.”
“I’m fine,” he repeated, his hands diving back into breast central.
I squirmed out of his hold, rolled off the bed, snatched up his shirt, pulling it on quickly lest my own needs and desire drive me back into his arms. Luckily for my good intentions, the stark, horrifying memory of Alec lying torn apart and bleeding against the ballroom wall was more than enough to sober me up. “So you say, but I’m a doubting kind of person until I can see things for myself.”
“The best way for me to prove to you that I have healed is to make love to you,” he said, gliding toward me with a look that a panther probably gave a particularly succulent bunny in his path.
“No, the best way to prove it is to strip and let me see your—”
He was naked before the words had left my lips.
It took me a few minutes of allowing my gaze to caress the long, mouthwatering stretches of muscle lying so sleekly under skin that I knew was warm and satiny and tasted so very good.... With an effort, I stopped the path down which my brain was heading, and reminded myself that just a short time earlier he had been almost killed. “Nice try, but I refuse to allow you to distract me that way. Now, let me see. . . .”
The blast of power hadn’t acted on Alec with the precision of a bladed instrument, meaning the thick scar that ran from the center of his chest to the top of his shoulder was jagged and uneven. It was also thick, and still red, and when I laid my hand on it, I could feel the heat as the flesh continued to repair itself. I let my fingers move upward to his neck, gently touching the twisting, angry-looking red seam that stretched from his collarbone around the side to the back of his neck. It, too, was hot to the touch.
Alec was clearly in no condition for the acts he so obviously desired, but if I told him that outright, he’d just scorn my concern and do what he wanted—giving me the most profound, intense pleasure without a single thought of whether it would harm him. I couldn’t let him stress himself, obviously, but how was I to stop him? It was useless to tell myself to just ignore the lure he posed, because that just wasn’t possible, and we both knew it.
No, I’d have to tell him he was going to take a new, much more passive role for the afternoon’s activities.
“Are you finished touching me?” Alec inquired politely. “If you are, it’s my turn.”
“No,” I said with a laugh as I pointed to the bed. “Lie down.”
His frown returned. “You are being dominant. Evidently you are under the impression I like that in my Beloved. While it’s true that I’m prepared to explore new things with you, I have never been one to take enjoyment from being passive.”
“Alec, less than an hour ago I thought you were dead. I know you think you’re perfectly fit for lovemaking, but I don’t think you are, not really. However”—I held up a hand to interrupt his protest—“I am willing to admit that you’re absolutely right in that I want you more than anything I can think of, so I’m willing to indulge us both, providing you let me do things my way.”
“What way is that?”
“For one, you let me seduce you. I know that you don’t normally like that, but—” I blinked as Alec, after staring at me for a moment, ripped the blankets from the bed standing across the room, and flung himself down on his back, his hands clasped behind his head, his feet wiggling in anticipation. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Come and seduce me, Beloved,” he said in an arrogant, demanding voice. “I am willing to let you take the lead this once, so long as you do it now, and don’t waste any more time in telling me I’m not healed enough to pleasure you as you deserve.”
I laughed again, and slowly, so as to tease just a little, unbuttoned his shirt that I still wore. His eyes lit with faux outrage as I deliberately took my time working my way down the line of buttons, making sure I stroked my hands over my hips (which seemed to hold some fascination for him) all the way up to my breasts.
“Take off the shirt,” he demanded, his breathing erratic as I stood, considering him for a moment.
“You’re the only man I know who can be simultaneously demanding and submissive.” I started to take off the shirt, pausing at the heat shining so brightly in his gorgeous green eyes.
You’re going to seize me the minute I get within range, aren’t you?
Absolutely.
That’s what I thought.
His eyes widened as I grabbed my jeans and jerked them on before turning on my heel and marching out of the room.
Corazon! Where are you going?
Stay there. Alec, I mean it, stay there! Don’t think I don’t know you’re putting your clothes back on and going to come after me, because I know you are, and you can just stop it. I’m going to get something . . . fun. Just get back into bed, and consider how lucky you are to have a Beloved who plans on making you wild with delight.
You make me wild with delight without fetching anything else. And what is it you’re getting?
His tone was grumpy, but I knew he could feel the sincerity in my intentions, and was doing as I asked even though it wasn’t what he wanted.
You get extra bonus points for that,
I told him.
And you’ll see.
He spent the next ten minutes alternating between ranting at the way he would punish me if I didn’t return to him that exact moment and telling me exactly how he wanted to make love to me. The former I ignored, but the latter made it extremely hard to carry on a coherent conversation with Sally, whom I found sitting in a sunny bow-fronted room with Terrin, sipping tea and eating petits fours.
Alec was scowling when I returned to the room Sally had given to us, his glare a truly magnificent thing to behold. “You have been gone exactly twelve min—what the hell do you think you’re going to do with those?”
I twirled the red silk braided rope in one hand, while draping the matching scarf over my shoulder. “Sally gave them to me. I’m going to use them, my sexy vampire, to keep you from doing everything you want to do. You’re still healing, so it’s important you don’t put too much stress on your wounds. The rope will ensure you don’t.”
“You don’t seriously believe you can tie me down.”
“Oh, yes, yes I do.”
He rolled his eyes and tried to hide a smug thought that he would indulge me for a few minutes before simply ripping his hands free from the restraint. I smiled a secret smile to myself, and peeled off my jeans and shirt.
“You’re not happy anymore,” I said, gesturing toward his penis, now in a dormant state.
“You were gone for twelve minutes,” he said, giving me a tolerant look as I slipped one of his hands through the adjustable loop in one end of the rope, snaking it through a couple of bars on the metal headboard before repeating the process with his remaining hand.
He tried to catch the nipple of my breast nearest him in his mouth as I leaned over him, but I shifted to the side, saying, “I would have thought you might have entertained yourself with thoughts of how you wanted me to pleasure you.”
“I didn’t, although I did spend some time on various punishment methods that will be meted out to you if you don’t stop stalling and let me make love to you.”
I smiled as he tested the bonds, distracted for a moment with the way the muscles in his arms and chest moved as he did so. The silk rope gave a little, but not so much that he could reach past his ears.
“What a delicious picture this is,” I said, leaning forward to nip his lower lip. “A handsome-as-sin vampire all tied up, just like a smorgasbord for me to taste. But I think . . . yes, I think we can improve on this experience.”
“I hope so, because I’m fast losing patience with you.”
He tried to sound stern and unhappy, but I could feel that his interest and curiosity had been piqued.
Has no woman ever taken the lead with you in lovemaking?
Not like this, no. What are you doing with that scarf?
“It’s a blindfold. Oooh, tricky!” As I leaned over him to tie the silken scarf over his eyes, he twisted and caught me with his legs, the powerful muscles in his thighs almost spelling an end to my plan. Just stroking my hand up their hard lengths was enough to have me giving in to all the wicked thoughts Alec was currently transmitting to me, especially when he added a sense of how much pleasure he received from me touching him. “But it will do you no good.”
I pried myself out of the leg vise, and quickly tied the scarf over his eyes, making sure his nose was free for breathing. “Would you like a safe word?”
“Hell, no.”
He was still smugly of the belief that he was in control of the situation. I let him continue thinking it as I cooed softly, stroking a hand down his chest from the jagged scar at his breastbone down to his penis. “Sooo hot, Alec. Your skin burns, but in a good way. I want to lick every inch of you. And since you are at my mercy and unable to distract me with your hands and mouth, I think I will.”
I hummed a jaunty little song to myself as I bent over his chest, swirling a tongue around first one nipple, hidden in the soft curls of hair, before turning my attention to the other, allowing my fingers to stroke the ridged muscles of his abdomen.
I don’t think I’ve ever slept with a man who had an actual six-pack, Alec. Do you work out?
Sometimes, when I’m not doing anything else.
I mentally damned his genes for allowing him to be in such good shape without working at it, while lesser folks like me were at the mercy of sadistic personal trainers.
Do not pretend that your body does anything but please me,
he chastised me.
You know it does, and it would not matter what shape it was.
“OK, that right there would make just about every woman on the planet your love slave for life.” I moved my kisses down his chest to his belly, swirling my tongue around his belly button as his hips jerked upward, his breath hissing when I bit the lovely indentation below his hips. “Luckily, no one but me is going to know you’re so wonderful. Why, what do we have here? It looks like a penis.”

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