Bloodlust Denied (2 page)

Echoes from another time whispered through his mind, but the time was now and the echoes were the seductive strains of the violin. Yet the music was inside his brain, inside his empty heart, twisting through his veins and pounding along his rigid shaft.

He nibbled kisses along her throat, savoring the sensation of her fluttering pulse, the torture of feeling the rush of her blood beneath the flimsy barrier of flesh, and the evocative scent of ethereal rose gardens.

“I could take you now.” His hoarse whisper teased her earlobe. This woman aroused him to a degree he’d long since forgotten existed.

“Then take me now.” Her panted command arrowed straight to his throbbing cock, the sensation so acute, for one incredulous second his fearsome control wavered.

No woman could exert such power over him. He would come only at his own command and no one else’s.

Still cradling her nape, he relinquished his hold on her arm and slid her gown over her shoulder. He wound a velvet ribbon around his fingers and tugged sharply. Her bodice gaped and he saw a tantalizing glimpse of erect nipple.

He cupped her breast, its satisfying weight filling his hand and in the wavering light, he could see the faint tracing of veins beneath the vulnerable skin.

So tempting.
So why didn’t he simply slake his lust, fuck her and take her and end this agonizing scream of want that consumed every nerve he possessed?

His lips closed over the puckered nipple and her gasp of shock only served to increase the power of his lust. Gently he sucked on the firm flesh when every throb of his engorged cock demanded he plunge his fangs into her. That he drink from her full, temping breast, suck her sweet blood from her, and satisfy this ravenous frenzy.

He flicked his tongue over the hard bud, and her fingers raked through his hair, pinning his head more securely to her body. Involuntarily a smile twisted and the tips of his fangs grazed his lips.

She wasn’t as indifferent to him as she tried to pretend.

With monumental effort, he forced his fangs to retract, the searing pain of denial ripping through his gums, shredding him from mouth to groin. A primeval groan of protest rasped along his throat but he increased the pressure around her nipple. Sucking, tugging, milking pleasure from her aroused flesh, from the way her fingernails gouged into his scalp.

“Harder.” Her breathless command stoked his lust, but he obeyed no man’s command, let alone a woman’s. Instead, he dragged his lips from her wet peak and heard her gasp of protest as the night’s breeze brushed against her nakedness.

For one eternal moment as he looked into her dark, lust-glazed eyes he saw only pure desire, a need as all-consuming as his own. A hunger for consummation and gratification and wild, mindless coupling.

He angled his groin into her, forcing her to acknowledge the extent of his arousal. To show her how hard he was, how hard he could ride her.

Her eyes glittered in the light of the lantern, eerie, intoxicating. She returned his pressure, grinding herself against the bulge in his breeches until insanity hovered in every frenzied note of the violin, in every erratic rasp of this woman’s breath against his mouth.

Sweet, pure breath. No hint of the gin-soaked depravity that permeated the shriveled souls of so many broken whores.

Not broken. No whore.
Whispers of thoughts, meaningless, fragmented. He didn’t care who she was, or what she was. Only that she was here in his arms and he intended to extract every last drop of pleasure from her body before he claimed her lifeblood.

Why
?

No answer. It didn’t matter why, only that he desired such novelty.

He grasped her gown, so fine, so flimsy, surely so unused to such rough handling, and fumbled for her smooth thigh.

Fumbled?
Outrageous. Blood pounded against his temples, ignited his brain. He hadn’t fumbled with a woman’s skirts since he’d been a raw boy and that was long ago. In another world, another life, when he’d believed in forever and had no concept of the futility of eternity.

Slender fingers caressed his erection, tugged him free of his restraints. A groan slid from his throat and he looked down, entranced by the sight of her delicate hand holding his throbbing cock, by the sensation of her fingers grasping him, yet unable to encircle him. By the knowledge that soon he would thrust into her welcoming pussy and fuck her until she lost the last remnants of her control and screamed her pleasure into the dark night sky.

“I want you.” There was an edge of desperation in her voice and triumph seared through him, hot, unbridled. He stroked the tender flesh of her thigh, then slid one finger across the damp seam of her sex, tangling her soft curls.

Fingernails scraped along his shaft, intensifying the unbearable ache consuming every particle of his body, and invading his mind with shards of scorched lightning. His finger slid into her wet cleft and she grasped him with such force, a ragged moan escaped as he envisioned her tight pussy clasping his cock in such an intimate embrace.

“Get down.” Her breathless command came from nowhere, and her hands shoved roughly at his shoulders, propelling him backward.

He gripped her wrists and her fragile bones seared his palms.

“Don’t play with me.” Gods, he could scarcely keep his teeth from her, and if she tried to deny him what they both wanted, he’d likely sever her neck in blood-fueled frenzy.

Her teeth flashed in a mirthless smile. “Sit, so I may straddle you.” She shoved him again, and his calves hit a crumbled stone wall.

A command such as this required no denial. He sat, and watched her hike her skirts to her knees and straddle him as she had promised.

Feminine thighs gripped him, muscles strong and firm, and he molded the curve of her waist and hips, forcing her down on his straining shaft. Instead of complying, she resisted, her strength shocking considering her slenderness, and with another of her strangely familiar smiles, she trailed her fingers across her exposed breast.

Air hissed between his clenched teeth as she caught her erect nipple between finger and thumb and rubbed the rosy tip. Her other hand raked back her long black hair and she tipped her head to one side, exposing the length of her naked neck and shoulder and breast for his uninterrupted viewing pleasure.

“Do you mean to torture me all night?” The words seared his throat.

For the fleetest second she hesitated, as if his question was unexpected. Her hand slid from her hair, tangled curls dancing to their own erotic melody.

“I don’t mean to torture you at all.” She sounded oddly unsure. “Only offer you release.”

He laughed for the second time that night, perhaps only the second time that century.

“I accept your offer, most gladly.” He twined her silken locks around his fist and pulled her toward him. The heat of her quim teased his damp slit, sending sharp arrows of lust along his length and into his aching balls. “If you will allow me the same favor in return.”

Her fingers curled around his shoulders and her eyes were so dark, so filled with passion, he almost believed there was something more, something sacred—something he’d lost forever and had never wanted to recapture in all his decades of wandering this cursed earth.

But as her breath escaped in a long gasp, as she swayed her hips above his searching cock, the insubstantial moment vanished. All he could see, all he could feel was raw desire emanating from her, as potent and potentially lethal as his own.

Slowly she lowered herself to him, heightening his desire until the need to impale her, to possess her, to claim her for his own was the only coherent thought pounding through his mind. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, her breath panted against his mouth and then she sank onto him, hot and tight and wet, sheathing him so securely, sanity shattered.

“Yes.” Barely aware he spoke, only aware of how this woman sucked him deep into her velvet embrace. Her pale breast beckoned him and he gripped the curve of her arse through the silk of her gown and suckled her nipple.

Fingers raked savagely through his hair as she flung back her head and pressed closer against his exploring mouth and tongue and teeth. Gods, his teeth. They ached to take her, to impale her as deeply as his shaft. But still he held back, inexplicably deriving perverted pleasure from his pain, from the hunger, from denial.

Her pussy flexed as she rose from his groin and in the flickering light, he saw her parted lips, her flushed cheeks, her lust-glazed eyes. She looked wild, alluring; a temptation the sane atom of his brain warned him to resist. But she was irresistible and he had no intention of denying his body this physical satisfaction.

With a sigh that sounded strangely like defeat, she slid down his erection, taking him deep inside her slick heat. His hand slid the length of her arched back, clasped her neck, and forced her toward him.

She resisted his pressure, and instead thrust forward her breasts, a clear invitation.

“Kiss me.” The words were harsh. He could scarcely believe he’d uttered them. When had he ever had to beg such a thing? Even before this twilight existence, women had flocked to his side, eager for his touch. They had craved, in vain, to feel his lips upon them.

For answer, she tightened her sheath around him. Ripples of pleasure played his cock, a physical counterpoint to the ethereal tremolo of the violin. The trembling notes were all that existed of the outside world; all that existed within this dark, erotic encounter.

“I don’t kiss.” She looked down at him, her midnight hair enclosing them in a scented haven of sensation. Her pouting lips offered untold sin, belying her words, yet she kept herself out of his reach.

He thrust his hips, burying his rigid shaft so deep within her that her entire body quivered with need. Her shocked gasp, the clench of her silken slit, the way her nails dug into his scalp all served to escalate the roar in his blood, the want clawing between his thighs.

“It wasn’t a request.” Damn her, how dare she resist? He could snap her fragile neck like a dried twig if he so desired. She had not the faintest concept how close to death she hovered.

“I know.” She rose onto her toes, her pussy clinging onto the head of his erection. The caress of her wet sheath around his shaft was torture.

She pounded onto him, driving forward so his cock penetrated at an angle. Lust burned through his core, tightening his balls with delirious agony. The column of her vulnerable throat filled his vision. Pale, tempting, throbbing with vital life and his fangs tore through his gums, desperate for primitive satisfaction.

“Do you seek release?” Her erratic breath whispered across his mouth and he kept his lips pressed together, unable to answer, unable to think. All he could feel was the rhythmic pulse of her tight cunt around him. Smell the scent of roses in the heated air. Feel the throb of the violin in the marrow of his bones.

Savagely he wound her hair around his fist and pulled her toward him. With agonizing restraint, he grazed his aching teeth across her fragrant skin. Her rich blood called to him, inviting him to taste and take and indulge his lust. Red ribbons of fire cascaded through his mind and obliterated his vision.

Blood filled his mouth, but it was his blood, fangs embedded in his tongue. A poor substitute for the lush crimson sustenance he craved.

Fingernails, sharp as blades, raked along his neck and warm liquid bathed his skin as the stench of corruption tainted the air. She grasped his throat, stroked her palms upward over his jaw, smearing his blood across his flesh. Taunting him, driving him insane. But her eyes captivated him, dark, fathomless, daring him to respond.

“Witch.” It was the only word he could articulate and it was a guttural sound, forced through gritted teeth and paralyzed lips.

Long eyelashes flickered, strangely vulnerable, and her lips parted as if she was about to reply. But then a shudder coursed along her spine, vibrating through their joined bodies. Her nails gouged into his face, sharp pain, intensely arousing.

He growled, a primal sound, and tightened his brutal grip on her hair. She gasped, tried to pull free and failed. Through her silken gown, he grasped her delectable arse more securely, his fingers sliding into her crease and probing her anus.

She gave a strangled scream and her hot cleft convulsed around him, squeezing his shaft. Her fingers tangled in his hair, her nails dug into his head and her bare breast tormented him. His balls drew up tight as she rode him with mindless abandon.

Her pussy clutched, tight as a glove, demanding his surrender. The musky scent of sex drifted around them like an opium cloud. His orgasm exploded along his shaft and he held her immobilized, savagely thrusting into her, fucking her as he had not fucked a woman in millennia.

He latched onto her throat and sucked her flesh. Tasting her sweetness and ravishing her flawless skin with his lips and his tongue; branding her for all time.

He dragged his mouth from her before he pierced her skin and drank in the sight of her lust-dazed face. He pumped into her quivering cleft and reveled in the sensation of her tight wetness milking him. Of the hot gasps issuing from her parted lips and the startled expression in her dark, exotic eyes.

Bone-trembling satisfaction claimed him. Gods, she’d drained him. He tightened his grip on her as she fell onto his chest, her heart thundering, her breath erratic. Her body trembled as if it had been too long for her, also, since she’d been so sexually sated.