Covet (8 page)

Lilah cried out, fire sweeping through every inch of her, burning her up as she trembled and quaked, her body throbbing hard with her orgasm. Shivers and tingles cascaded over her skin, up and down her thighs in time with each pulse of his cock inside her and each pull he made on her blood. She clutched him to her, unable to do anything else but ride out each tremor of bliss that rocked her, her breath stuttering and heart stammering in her chest. Javier sucked softly on her neck, his hips making shallow thrusts, hands tightly gripping her.

No pain.

Only deep pleasure that sent her floating and drifting away, that slowly broke through the tremors of her orgasm and opened her mind to the feel of her blood flowing from her and into Javier. With each drop he took from her, the horizon in her mind expanded, unravelling outwards, until it met his and merged. She could feel him. Was this what it was like to be bitten by a vampire and have them take blood from you? She had never experienced it before.

Javier’s thoughts were warm around her, soft as they encased her, and she felt as though they were holding her as surely as his hands were. She fell into them, unafraid, opening herself to him in the hope that he would know that she was there too and would feel her thoughts as she could feel his. It was too difficult to tell him that she loved him right now when everything was so uncertain but she could let him feel it. The feeling inside her intensified and the warmth she felt increased, suffusing her and making her smile. She didn’t understand what was happening but she didn’t need to in order to know Javier’s feelings for her in the connection forged between their blood.

He withdrew his fangs and licked the puncture marks on her throat, softly and slowly, with infinite care. She was growing sleepy by the time he finally finished and placed a kiss on her throat.

“Sleep a while with me,” he whispered into her ear and rolled them over, gathering her close to him. He tugged the bedclothes over her and around them both, and then wrapped his arms around her shoulders, holding her.

Lilah didn’t want to sleep but the incredible warmth flowing through her and the feelings she could sense in Javier carried her away.

J
avier stared down at Lilah where she lay in his arms, her head resting against his forearm and her slow breaths skating warmly over his bare chest. Each beat of her steady heart marked another passing second and brought him closer to the time when he would have to face her master. He refused to fear it while he held her safe in his arms, her nude body curled close to his and her right hand on his left shoulder, close to the place where she had bitten him. It felt so peaceful that he could almost believe that this time with her would never end and they would drift through eternity like this, quiet and sated, alternating between sleeping and making love.

He drew his left hand away from her and carefully lifted the strands of her dark chestnut hair from her face, tucking them back into the loose mess of her bun.

She was so beautiful.

His Lilah.

He traced a lone fingertip down her warm satin cheek, unable to remember the last time he had felt so content and had watched over a woman as she slept in his arms. Not this past century at least. The theatre had become his life since the night it opened, stealing all his time and energy. Until Lilah had walked into his life and filled it with new colours and sounds, and scents, and rekindled his desire to live.

Her nose wrinkled as he brushed it and she frowned, buried her head into the crook of his arm, and curled up.

Javier smiled.

He loved her so much.

He bent his head to press a kiss to her brow and she rolled away from him and wriggled backwards until her bottom pressed into his hip. The heat of her against him and the sight of her peachy backside so close to his crotch shattered the peace and stoked the fire of passion back into life within him. His cock twitched and started to harden, and he rolled onto his side and nestled it in the crack of her bottom. She moaned in her sleep and rubbed against him, tearing a low groan from his throat in response.

Javier dropped kisses on the back of her shoulder, the nape of her neck, and then the top of her shoulder close to where he had bitten her.

Bitten her.

He smiled and kissed the marks, glad that he hadn’t hurt her with his bite. It was further proof to him that Lord Ashville’s bond to her was incomplete. It boosted his hope that the law would land on his side when time came to face her so-called master. The sacred law spoke of a vampire violating it and that the pain caused to the human would mark the violation. Lilah was right. It didn’t speak of a human violating the law or that the owned human would feel no pain. He needed to speak to Antoine about it as soon as possible and see what he made of the situation. Antoine would be angry with him for violating it in the first place since he hadn’t known then that his touch and bite wouldn’t pain Lilah, but his old friend had to see that this case was unique and required those who ruled the vampires to decide on the outcome. Antoine couldn’t let Lord Ashville act out the penalty without an investigation into the bond between him and Lilah.

Javier wrapped his arm around her stomach and pulled her roughly against him, grinding his hard cock against the crack of her backside at the same time. He pressed his mouth to her shoulder, breathing in the trace of her blood scent and closing his eyes. He should go to Antoine now but he couldn’t muster the strength to leave the bed and Lilah’s side yet, not until he had seen pleasure on her face one more time and seen in her eyes that she shared his feelings.

“Lilah,” he whispered and kissed along her neck, up the delicate slope of it to her ear. “Are you awake?”

She moaned and rubbed her bottom against him. “One of us certainly is.”

He smiled. “It is still night. I am supposed to be awake... and so are you.”

Lilah sighed and rolled to face him, throwing her knee over his hip. Her mound pressed against his erection, heating it and bringing back memories of how tight and hot she was. He groaned.

“How long was I asleep?” she muttered.

“Only an hour.” He smiled down at her when her eyes fluttered open and her beautiful golden irises rose to meet his.

Lilah frowned. “What were you doing in that time?”

“Watching you sleep.” His honest answer drew a harder frown from her. He pressed the pad of his thumb between her eyes and smoothed it away, still smiling ear to ear at her. “You are beautiful when you are sleeping in my arms.”

She smiled and snuggled closer to him. “Am I not beautiful any other time?”

“All the time,” he whispered and kissed her. She opened to him, tipping her head back and willingly accepting his kiss. He closed his eyes in pleasure, lost in the feel of her mouth on his, so warm and soft and sweet, everything he had ever dreamed of experiencing. She honestly didn’t think he was a monster. He had growled, snarled, broken his bonds and bitten her, and she had accepted all of it.

All of him.

“Mmm,” she hummed and drew away from him again. Her fingers stroked the left side of his neck, her eyes tracking them from the point below his earlobe to his collarbone. “Where did you get this?”

“In a fight.” There was no point in masking who he was and the things he had done. She would find out and he preferred that she knew such things about him sooner rather than later. He wanted her to base her decision to be with him on all the facts, with her eyes open to what he was and his past.

“Are you a good fighter?” Her gaze met his, inquisitive but soft and full of acceptance. Her steady heart told him that she wasn’t afraid of his answer or whatever he might tell her. She already knew what he was.

He nodded. “Better than the man who gave me this, anyway.”

“What happened to him?”

He didn’t hesitate. “I killed him.”

“Was he human or vampire?”

She was certainly awake now, her golden irises bright with curiosity. He stroked her cheek, swept strands of her dark hair from her face, revealing it to him so he could drink his fill of it.

“Vampire hunter,” he said and then added, “I have killed my share of hunters, and vampires... and humans. There were times when I was younger when it was more difficult to control my hunger. It is something all vampires go through during their first two centuries.”

She smiled. “You say that as though it’s a mere handful of years. It’s twice the age within my grasp.”

His face fell and so did hers when he touched her cheek again, staring into her eyes. “Would you want to live that long, Lilah?”

She dropped her gaze to his chest and traced patterns on his pectorals, sending shivers of need spiralling down through him to his groin. She didn’t even seem to notice that she was torturing him with her touch, teasing him towards the brink of despair and losing control. He wanted her again, hungered to feel her under his fingers and be inside her once more. She was making it difficult for him to remain talking and he knew that it was important to her.

“Perhaps. Would I have to become a vampire to live for centuries?” That question came out sounding like one she had considered many times but had never had the courage to seek the answer to it.

“Not necessarily. Regular intake of blood from a vampire you are bonded with could grant you a very long life... but it would only slow your aging. By the time you reached two centuries, you would likely be very old and grey and tired of life.” Javier didn’t want that for her. He wanted her to remain as she was now, beautiful and youthful, and his. He hesitated, toying with a strand of her hair, and watched his fingers, not brave enough to look her in the eye when he found the courage to say what he needed to. “If you wanted to live as long as I have and remain as you are, you would have to become a vampire. Would you ever consent to becoming a vampire, Lilah?”

Her fingers stilled against his chest and her heart skipped a beat, giving her away. Whatever she said, he knew the answer that she held deep in her soul. She was afraid of becoming a vampire.

“I thought vampires didn’t like to turn people and taint their bloodline?”

Javier smiled again. “Some think that way. Mainly the aristocrats. Keeping their families pure has become a sort of mission to them.”

“You’re an elite, aren’t you?”

He nodded against the deep blue pillow and she looked up at him, right into his eyes. There was a spark of warmth in hers, something akin to affection, and an urge to ask her what she was thinking gripped him again but he let it fall away instead and answered her question.

“Yes, I am elite. That means my family has human blood in it. I wasn’t turned, but my father turned my mother, and they had me, my younger brother and my sister. They still live in Spain. My sister recently married the man she turned.”

“Is that where you went?”

Javier nodded again. “I missed you when I was there. Watching my sister marry and seeing my parents again... I kept thinking about you.”

Her eyes widened and he wasn’t sure what to say. Had he given himself away? He should have been more guarded with what he had said but the words had flowed out of him so naturally that he hadn’t thought to censor them. If she knew that he wanted that for them, he wanted the fairytale of turning her and then marrying her before his family, then he was glad in a way. It would give her time to consider it without the pressure of him asking outright.

“Did you miss me?” he whispered, trying to give her something to respond to so she didn’t feel as though she had to say anything about him turning her.

“Not at all.” She looked deadly serious, so much so that his heart dropped into his stomach. She pushed him onto his back and climbed astride him, pressing her warmth against his cock, teasing it back into hardness. She smiled at last, leaned over so her stomach and chest pressed against his, and kissed his chin. “I missed you like crazy... especially when Callum mentioned you would be away for a whole month. That must have been some wedding celebration.”

Javier shrugged, settled his hands on her bare backside, and shifted her upwards so he could reach her mouth and kiss her. If he married her, the celebrations would last longer than a month. He would be celebrating it forever.

He kissed her slowly, hoping to stop her questions, but she broke away from him and looked down into his eyes.

“How old are your brother and sister?”

He knew where this was heading. “My sister is three hundred and fifty seven... eight even. My brother is five hundred and two. I was away for a month shortly after you first arrived because of his five hundredth birthday. I am six hundred and thirty three.”

“I’m that transparent?” Her rosy lips curved back into a soft smile and he couldn’t resist kissing her again. She settled her elbows on the pillows above his shoulders and returned the kiss this time, her mouth playing gently against his, tongue barely touching his as they met and parted. She drew back again. “So you’re just the six hundred years older than me?”

Javier palmed her buttocks. “Does that make me too old for you?”

She peppered kisses on his lips and cheek and then his jaw. “Not at all. Does that mean you’re strong? I heard that vampires over five hundred were much stronger... but that elite vampires aren’t as strong as aristocrats.”

Javier abruptly wrapped his arms around her and held her head against his chest. “Do not think about it. I will take care of it... just... everything will be alright.”

She nodded against him and he clutched her shoulders and raised her off him, so he could see her face. There was worry in her golden eyes, fear that he could smell in her blood. He sighed and cupped her cheek, holding her gaze.

“Maybe I need to take your mind off it.” Javier raised his hips beneath her, pressing his erection into her warmth.

Her saucy smile stole his heart.

Lilah wriggled against him, pressed her hands against his chest and pushed herself up. Javier groaned at the sight of her firm round breasts and covered them with his hands, feeling the heat of her against his palms. Her eyelids drooped when he thumbed her nipples, circling them at first before pinching and rolling them between his index finger and thumb. She tipped her head back and moaned, a goddess above him, beautifully bare and enticing.