Blood Dark (9 page)

K
ane tore
his T-shirt over his head, saw Caitlin’s eyes flare before they wandered over his shoulders, his pecs and down his abdomen. And it was a look that was as powerful as any touch; a look that assured him of the intensity of her physical attraction to him.

And it was a look that only added to the invitation as she lay there secured, her legs spread apart, the flimsy lace still covering her sex but skimming enticingly low on her slender hips.

He knelt on the bed between her spread thighs. Slowly he slid his palm up between her breasts to her throat where he grasped her gently, reminding her of her vulnerability before sliding his hand back down again, relishing in the warmth of her smooth, flawless skin.

He’d almost forgotten how good she felt, how
right
touching her felt. How different it was being with a human compared to one of his own. How much her rapid breathing, her pounding heart, the heat of her flesh, turned him on. How much the way she looked at him – as only she could look at him – turned him on.

She wanted him.

She wanted him as much as he wanted her.

‘It’s been too long,’ he said, gliding his hands down the inside of her thighs, relishing in the subtle flinch of her anticipation. He slid his hands back up under the hip-bands of her knickers, easing the fabric from her mound whilst making it tighten against her sex with the motion.

She held her breath. Her whole body tensed as she parted her lips further.

Keeping his fingers spread across her groin, spanning over her hips, he slid both thumbs simultaneously down over her sex, down through the moistness that betrayed her arousal.

His erection stiffened painfully as Caitlin gasped and instinctively arched her back. Her eyes widened before she squeezed them shut. When she opened them a split second later, he offered her a hint of a smile; a knowing smile that clearly they had
both
waited far too long.

Hooking the crotch of her knickers aside, he gazed at the beauty of the flesh he was caressing for his pleasure as much as hers, his thumb finding her clit, encircling the nub before applying just enough pressure to make her involuntarily whimper.

He met her gaze again to see her dewy eyes locked on his, her whole body trembling.

Placing his palm back beside her shoulder, he leaned over her again, his thumb still working her sex.

He knew what she was expecting. And he could feel in her subtle hip movements, from her instinctive hint of pressure against his hand, she would take him into her willingly.

But he was going to make her wait.

Her hands clenched again as he gently removed his hand and straddled her hips before reaching for one of the spare strips of fabric.

But as he lowered it to her eyes, Caitlin snatched back a breath and turned her head away.

He clutched the headboard for balance as he leaned over her. He caught her jaw, encouraging her to meet his gaze, hers now laced with anxiety.

She’d never been able to handle the pitch black. He’d managed to get it out of her that it had been since her parents’ deaths. She’d had countless nightmares those past seven years of something being stood beside her, watching her, waiting for her, and being helpless to strike back. And the tension in her body only reinforced how true and how deep her fear was of losing one of her core senses, the one that gave her the greatest sense of control.

‘Nothing will touch you,’ he said, rubbing his thumb across her lips. ‘Not with me here.’

‘I don’t like it,’ she said, and he could hear how hard her pulse raced to confirm it.

‘You’ve never tried it.’

She swallowed hard. She was wavering. If she wasn’t, she would have demanded he got the hell off her.

‘Try it,’ he said, gliding his thumb along her jawline. ‘If you ask, I’ll take it off.’

Her eyes lingered for a moment.

He needed her to say yes. He so desperately wanted her to say yes.

‘Promise?’

He couldn’t help but smile at the innocence lacing her request for assurance.

‘Promise,’ he said.

To his relief, instead of having a battle on his hands, she gave a small nod.

He wrapped the blindfold around her, careful not to knot it in her hair.

Unable to ignore the way the new sensation made her lips part slightly, Kane traced his index finger over the silky softness of her upper lip and then her lower lip, circling over both before sliding the tip of it into her mouth.

At first she was hesitant, snatching back another breath. But as he withdrew his finger slowly over the tip of her tongue, over her lower teeth, before entering it again, she finally accepted it. More than that, she closed her lips around it so he could feel the wet warmth of the inside of her mouth. Holding his own breath, he pushed his finger deeper, Caitlin taking him to his first knuckle and then his second before he swapped his index finger for his thumb, encouraging her to take it fully as his fingers spanned her jaw.

Her breath hitched, and it only incited him more.

His thighs spread either side of her hips to balance himself, he slid his free hand down over her concealed breast before pulling the cup of that one down too, this time exposing her breast fully before taking her in his mouth.

Her groan against his other hand caused his rock-hard erection to jolt, his need becoming overwhelming. But he would prolong it as much as he could, ratcheting up the intensity when the time came. When he’d
let
her come.

Already she was losing her sense of anxiety about the blindfold. Already he could see she was losing herself. Already she was forgetting the world outside, just like he’d worked so hard to achieve in those past two weeks. When she forgot her external self, she became who she truly was. That was when he felt he could get close to her: when it was simply him and Caitlin.

And he needed to remind himself that
his
Caitlin was still in there. He needed to convince himself that she could leave that agent persona at the door completely.

In turn, he could to flip his middle finger up at anyone who thought they could use her against him. Caitlin belonged to
him
. If they saw her like he did then, they’d know it.

He squeezed her breast as he tongued her nipple, could feel his incisors elongating at the feel of the delicate flesh they could so easily sink into. Instead, he licked and sucked as he encouraged her to do the same to his thumb, until he withdrew. Leaving her breast glistening, he freed the clasp at the front of her bra, letting the fabric part naturally before he brushed both cups aside.

He knew she’d be aware of his gaze tracing over every inch of her. He knew the exposure would be heightened by her blindfolded state. He slid both of his hands down her ribcage, to the inward curve of her waist, his thumbs stopping just inches away from each other either side of her belly button before he slid his hands back up again.

Taking a firm breast in each hand, his thumbs worked her nipples simultaneously until he watched her knuckles turn white, until her back arched as she relished the firm tenderness of his blatant caress.

When she wetted her lips, it was too much to resist.

He tore open the buttons on his jeans, freeing himself of the constriction of his jeans and shorts. Taunting himself further with a couple of strokes along his length, his hardness switched to agony as he rubbed the pre-cum across his tip whilst watching her trembling like the kind of bait that appealed to the darkest, most instinctive part of the vampire in him.

He’d had way too much experience to be responding so quickly, but this was with Caitlin – and with Caitlin it always felt like the first time.

Tensing his thighs to remain braced above her, he clutched the headboard for balance as he took himself fully in his hand and guided the tip of his erection to her mouth.

Though startled at first, she accepted. She accepted enough for him to ease in a couple of inches. He reluctantly closed his eyes to help contain himself as he slid deeper into the warmth of her pliable mouth.

He knew the limitations of her gag reflex – a reflex he had been working on. Her next notch of confidence would come when she instigated oral sex for herself. Because she still underestimated what she did to him. She had no idea how instinctively good she was.

But she’d get there.

In carefully controlled moves, he slid in and out of her open mouth, pushing an inch further each time, her lips having finally closed willingly around him.

And as her tongue finally worked him, he stretched his neck back, clutching the top of the headboard with both hands. He bit into his bottom lip, the temptation to thrust overwhelming.

Because he knew he could come then – make her swallow the very essence of him, let it trickle down her throat, binding him to her even further.

But instead, he withdrew. He’d had four days without her, without being able to get that close to her, and he was going to linger over every second of having her back.

Taking a steadying breath that he hoped was undetectable to her, he reached for the last piece of fabric and gagged her, completing the effect before easing off the bed.

A
side from the
distant music that could belong to another world, Caitlin could hear nothing but her own breathing. Even as she held her breath, there was no sound of movement.

But she could smell his presence – that woody, musky scent that always evoked a reaction in her.

Or she was convincing herself that was what she could smell.

The quiet was enough to chill her, enough to make her second guess what Kane was doing. Insecurities ratcheted through her again, making her aware of the ache in her arms, the numbness forming in her lower legs. She trembled, and not just from the subtle breeze making its way through the gap in window alongside her.

Lingers of a threat crept through her again – thoughts she dismissed no sooner than they had entered her head. Because Kane wouldn’t do it. Kane wouldn’t do anything to risk her, to hurt her, to do anything to cause further doubt between them. He was doing it to build the bond, not break it.

But she’d never taken him like that before. Never had she taken him while being so under his command. The recollection had her wriggling her hips slightly, trying to ease the tension between her legs. She could still taste him, exacerbated by the gag. The image was strong in her head: the vision of him straddling her as he ploughed into her mouth. And she’d tried to take him deeper but the angle had made it awkward. The last thing she’d wanted to do was start choking on him, to do anything to kill the mood.

Now she had no idea where he was. If she hadn’t been gagged, she wouldn’t have been able to hold back from calling out his name. Instead, she twisted her wrists in the restraints.

‘Wriggling like that doesn’t help your cause,’ he said.

Jolts shot to her stomach at the sound of his rasp, as instant a response as always to him.

He was at the foot of the bed.

Maybe even sat on the chair she’d seen.

Watching her.

And she told herself she could handle it – that she could go with whatever he was going to do. That she could relish in the experience of his control; that she wasn’t scared because she
could
trust him.

K
ane wandered back
around the side of the bed, his arms folded as he watched her shallow and erratic breaths, as he examined every inch of the work of art that she was. She trembled as much with the cold as her arousal, but he wasn’t going to close the window. He liked the shimmer of goosebumps on the perfectly smooth flesh of her breasts, to see her hardened nipples. He liked the breeze gently blowing wisps of her hair, and he liked the feel of the Blackthorn night air on his own naked skin.

He’d lingered on the length of her slender throat, the upward curve of her breasts, the subtle concave of her stomach, before gliding his gaze down the length of her shapely thighs.

Moving back to the foot of the bed, his straining erection was almost unbearable.