Blood In Fire (Celtic Elementals Book 2) (12 page)

Maybe she should be thankful for that, but she wasn't. She couldn’t help but feel like she’d lost something, some private piece of herself. Knowing he’d invaded her
mind
without her consent, made her forget something so intimate…

Maybe, just maybe there was a way to feel better about the whole thing. If she could be brave enough to ask.

Aidan was nuzzling her neck now, sending shivers to every secret little place in her core. His hand had slipped under her shirt, shoving it up. He released the front catch of her bra and when she felt the first touch of warmed leather against her breast, she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out loud.

She slipped her own hand into his hair, the soft, silky spring of his curls against her fingertips as she pulled lightly, trying to get his attention.

It wasn’t enough. Aidan’s head was lowering inexorably, his lips inches from his target.

It took everything she had to pull back, but she made herself.

She had to know.

He looked up at her, surprised and a little irritated at this interruption. He released her hands and she tried to scoot back on his thighs. He yanked her down again, keeping her flush against him. Heather licked her dry lips and watched him follow the movement. A look spread over his face that made her heart race.

“Aidan, wait,” her voice was shaky and alarmingly breathless. It went to a screech when his tongue flicked out and teased the tip of her aching breast. “Oh god,
please
…just quit for one damn second!”

He pulled back, his eyes narrowing.

“Are ye planning on telling me no again?”

She shook her head and felt him relax. “Then what is it? There’s a fair dozen people in this house, Heather. If we don’t get a move on, we’ll be walked in on…and I’m no' of a mind to be interrupted at the mo’. Though I do believe I said something about begging before...”

She swallowed, shrugged. “Fine. Whatever you like.”

His eyebrows raised. “Nice to know ye’ve come to yer senses at last. Though tha' does take a bit o' the f—“

“Are you hungry right now?”

He cocked his head as her words cut across his. His face was so utterly bemused, Heather giggled nervously. “Thirsty, I mean?” The confusion slid from his face like someone had wiped it off.

He didn’t answer her for a long, long time, searching her eyes. The way he had in that bar in Istanbul, she realized with a start. When he finally spoke, his one word fell like a stone between them.

“Aye.”

Heather swallowed again, but pressed on. “Then do it, Aidan…drink from me. Here. Now. Without using that…whatever it is you have to make me forget—“

“Heather.
Nae
. You donna want th—“

“Don’t tell me what I want!” Her voice cracked between them and Aidan flinched. “You don’t get to go into my mind and hide something from me because you don’t think I can handle it…or were you just scared to show me what you really are?”

Aidan snorted, even as his shoulders tensed under her hands. “There is no' anything about ye tha' scares
me
, nobody.”

“Then don’t hide! I know what you are now.”

“Knowing and seeing—and feeling—are quare different things, love.”

“Right. And how would you
feel
knowing somebody had taken something from you, a piece of your memory—however unpleasant or frightening—and just erased it?”

He jerked at her words, as if she’d slapped him again.

For a moment Aidan sat there, still as stone, his angular face unreadable in the flickering shadows. Finally he nodded once, just the barest inclination of his head. The pupils of his gorgeous eyes were blown wide, inky dark pools ringed with silver ice as he bent toward her again.

She expected him to go for her throat, but she should’ve know Aidan would buck tradition. His mouth closed instead over her bared breast, his lips warm and caressing, sending tingles straight between her legs. Her fingers tightened in his hair.  She had to fight the urge to close her eyes and just surrender to the pleasure of his highly experienced mouth and tongue. But she wanted to see. Heather knew that she
needed
to see and not forget anything.

And she did see. Actual fangs, gleaming and sharp as his lips parted again, fangs that shone in the firelight. God. A cold finger of instinctive fear traced her spine.

Pain flared, hot and white. Twin stabs, just above her throbbing nipple. She gasped, her eyes widening. Aidan stared up at her and she couldn’t look away. Fire seemed to flare up, all over her body, and she shuddered in its grip.

Aidan’s gloved hands slipped over her waist, holding her still as the fire burnt down, flame by flame until it settled in the small area where his mouth touched her, drawing out her very life…her blood. She arched helplessly as he drank.

It was so intimate, almost sacred. He looked cruel in the light from the fire, like some dark god taking her as sacrifice. Goosebumps danced over her whole body. It was hard to breathe, but her heart raced in her chest until it burned. It felt like an eternity before he pulled back, but when he did she had to hold back a cry at the emptiness that streaked through her with the separation.

Aidan slapped a hand over her mouth, her lips tasting leather.

He toppled them both silently off the couch, on to the rug in front of the fire, that crackled and sparked behind Aidan’s dark silhouette. He stripped her bare in seconds, making such short work of buttons and zippers, she was sure it had to be more magic. At this point she was beyond caring what it was, as long as he got inside her as quickly as possible. Something had taken over her, powerful and demanding. She was almost used to wanting Aidan by now, if such a thing were possible. She knew well that throb of heat that pulsed inside her whenever he was near, but this….

It was utterly consuming. She had to have him…now, now,
now!

But when he slid against her, his cock thick and solid between her slick lips, she bucked on the rug like a wild thing, almost unable to stand it. The feel of him was overwhelming as his length dragged over her clit. She shoved her fingers into her mouth to keep from screaming. His hands were on her hips, the leather hot now in the blaze of the fire, almost branding her skin as he thrust inside her.

And now it wasn’t enough. She met his rhythm and urged him on. Faster. Still not enough. She whimpered as her insides tightened but the release she craved wouldn't come.

He wanted more, too. She could see it in his face. With a low growl, he grabbed her legs, throwing them over his shoulders. Then Aidan grabbed her bare ass in his gloved hands and lifted her off the floor, into him. Her head fell back as his cock stretched her wide, going so deep it almost hurt. Such a delicious pain, like when he had drank from her. Such a goddamn
satisfying
ache.

Her inner muscles fluttered. One hand flailed at the rug, as her fingertips brushed his rock solid thigh, then trailed up his lean hip, over to the firm curve of his ass. Her fingers dug into him as he drove inside her again and again.

When she came, the room seemed to spin away, lost in a thousand twinkling lights. Aidan pulsed once inside her, swelling against her clenched muscles. Then she felt him break, too. Slick and hot, his body dropped onto hers. Her legs fell to his sides as he let go. They trembled with weakness from hip to toe, but she managed to wrap them around his limp body along with her arms.

She had never held him like this, but right now…right now they both needed it. Even if she suspected Aidan would never admit it.

A stealthy knock came at the door.

“Oh for heaven’s bloody sake!” Aidan’s words tickled her ear.

“At least they knocked.” She whispered back, and felt him smile against her neck.

“At least he waited until we were finished.”

“He?”

“'Tis Ronan.”

Heather blinked, his powers were more than a bit disconcerting.

“Oh… Are we finished then, Aidan?”

He lifted himself from her slowly, his fire-and-sex warmed muscles flexing and stretching under her hands. Muscles that had been warmed by her blood, as well, Heather realized with a sting of shock.

His eyes were glowing, but so softly she wasn’t quite sure she wasn’t imagining it.

“No' by half, nobody. No' by bloody half.” Then he smiled and shook off the mood of the moment with his next words. “For one thing, ye dinna beg. Ye were supposed to beg. And I think I said something about knees as well.” He pushed himself up onto his own knees as she gaped up at him.

“You, you goddamn—“

“Ass, is it then? Are we back to tha'?” He laughed as she swatted at him. She did it more in amusement than irritation. Heather was feeling far too relaxed to work up a proper temper and figured Aidan knew it from the smile on his face.

His expression quickly turned to a frown when the knock came again, far less stealthy and good deal more impatient this time.  “Oy! Shut it, Ronan. Give a man time to get decent, will ya?”

Ronan’s deep voice was soft, but held an unmistakable smile that slipped through the door. “Ye’ve never been decent, but ye have always been a right arse. The lass has tha' dead on.”

“Stop eavesdropping, ye prevert and go head on wit yerself. I’ll be out in a mo’.”

Heavy footsteps moved away, but didn’t hide a muffled laugh.

Aidan shook his head. “He’s enjoying this, he is. Getting his own back, he thinks. Damme eejit.”

Heather wondered what exactly Aidan considered ‘this’ to be, but didn’t ask. Instead she said. “Getting what back?”

“I may have…inadvertently, ye mind, overheard some of his and Lacey’s more, ermh…intimate moments. So I daresay, he’s having a bit of fun interrupting us.” Nearly dressed now, Aidan sat down on the couch to pull on his boots.

She winced. “Oh for ….! Men. Everything’s a damn game.”

“Aye, competition is what makes us men. And for the record, since I know ye are wondering,” she turned her head curiously as he leaned over and brushed her ear with his lips, “ye and I win. No contest.”

Heather flushed from head to toe as Aidan stepped over her to open the door, but couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips.

His bite had left no mark, her skin was smooth and unblemished. Heather noted in the small mirror above the couch as she dressed. Another thing that Hollywood and most of her favorite authors had gotten wrong. She stepped out into the hallway.

Right in the path of
Moiré Fitzpatrick. Ronan’s mother, whom she had only met briefly at supper. A meal she had anxiously excused herself from as soon as possible, with the intent of talking to Aidan.

The tall, Irish woman was giving her a forthright look that made Heather uncomfortably aware of just what she’d been doing in this woman’s home minutes before. She cleared her throat and smiled weakly.

“Hello.”

“Good eve. Lacey is in the kitchen, washing up.” The tone was mild, but Heather thought there was an accusatory note in there somewhere.

“Right,” her cheeks were burning. Heather could feel the heat and resisted the urge to put her hands up to cool them down. “I'll just go help her out.”

Moiré stepped aside to let Heather pass in the narrow hall. At the last moment, she turned.

“Miss Kantos?”

“Oh, there is no need to call me ‘miss’. Heather's fine.”

Moiré inclined her head in acknowledgement of this, but her brown eyes said there was every need for formality between them. “Aidan is like a son to me, I do hope ye understand tha'?”

“I…sure.”

“He’s had a strange life, our Aidan has. And a terribly hard one. I would nae care for anyone who made it harder. Ye take me meaning?”

Heather started. These Fitzpatrick women were certainly protective of Aidan. He was the vampire here, not her. Why the hell did everyone persist in making her feel like the dangerous one? “I'm not sure that I do.”

The older woman tucked a strand of greying red hair behind one ear as she studied Heather for a moment. “I think tha' ye do, but to be clear, Aidan may seem right cocky and full of himself to ye, and mayhap he is. But his heart runs quare deep for all tha' show. Ye will nae be welcome here if ye trifle with him. Lacey’s friend or no'.”

“Sorry, but I'm not anywhere near to Aidan’s
heart
. I think you've misunderstood our…relationship. We barely know one another.” Her cheeks, cooling in her anger, threatened to fire up again, but Heather forced it down. She had nothing to be ashamed of here.

“Mayhap ye are right, and if so, ye’ll be accepting my apologies.” Moiré smiled and held out a hand, which Heather took hesitantly. The woman’s grip was both soft, firm and very strong.

Heather gulped when the woman pulled her close enough for Moiré’s next whispered words to ring in her ears alone.

“Two such like souls have little need of
time
to recognize each other, lass. Be ware of my Aidan’s heart….and yer own.”

Moiré dropped her hand and pushed past. Heather stood frozen, her fingers still tingling from the woman’s grip. Moiré's words had raised goose bumps on the backs of her arms.