Crave the Night (16 page)

The pirates took her mother's life and her
sister's soul, in one fell swoop stealing everything Sarina valued,
but now she would get at least one of those things back.

She would save her sister, and all it would
cost her was Nolan.

She turned her face to the wind, letting the
chill numb her, then she dove into the water and swam toward the
boat.

Sarina reached Nolan before he reached the
boat. She held out her hand, and after a moment, he took it.

She hadn't rejected him, hadn't turned her
back on him because of what he was.

Because she didn't know, an inner voice
reminded him. If she did...when she did...she would look at him
with the same revulsion everyone else he'd thought he'd known,
thought he could trust, had.

Still, as her fingers wrapped around his and
she pulled him through the water, it was easy to get lost in the
joy of the moment. He sped forward, his body surfing over the
water's surface and cold air blowing over his face.

It was brisk and invigorating—exciting and
like nothing he had ever experienced before.

They reached the yacht, and sensing Sarina
might want privacy for her transition from water to land, Nolan
climbed onto the boat on his own, then turned his back. He was
curious to see the mermaid's tail out of water, but he maintained
his stance through the sounds of splashing and something flapping
against the boat's polished wood deck.

"Thank you." Her voice was soft and almost
shy.

He shrugged, and suddenly aware of his own
saturated state, began wringing out his clothing on the deck. Since
his turn, cold didn't bother him, but removing the water from his
clothing seemed like the expected thing to do.

"Here."

Something flew through the air toward him.
Nolan spun, catching it. A towel.

He rubbed at his face and hair.

The mermaid had dried off too. Her hair was
still damp, but she had donned one of the loose-fitting shirts she
seemed to prefer, and a towel was wrapped around her lower body. As
Nolan watched, the tip of her fin, which was visible at the end of
the towel, disappeared, and she wiggled her toes.

She looked up and caught him staring. He
averted his gaze, but she waved her hand and stood. "It's okay.
Humans have always been curious. At least you didn't try to cut
open my tail to see if legs were hidden inside."

"That's happened?"

"Not to me, but others." She looked away,
and he could tell she didn't want to discuss the subject more.

He bunched the towel he'd been holding into
a ball. Things felt odd between them, unanswered questions lying
around, weighing them both down.

And there was the kiss too.

He didn't regret it. In fact, he would have
liked nothing more than to repeat it, but after she'd mentioned the
blood...he lowered his arm and looked around for a spot to deposit
the towel. Seeing a basket, he walked over and dropped the wet
object inside.

"It won't be long now," she murmured.

He turned to find that she'd moved. She was
only a few feet away from him now. The wind caught her shirt,
pushing it tight against her curves. Her breasts were full and her
nipples were hard. It was easy to imagine her without the shirt,
remember how she'd looked under the ocean, her hair fanning around
her face.

His groin hardened. "Until what?" he asked,
lost as to what she could mean, lost to everything but the pounding
need to touch her that seemed to grow with each passing second.

"Melusine...the sea hag. The dragon was one
of her pets. She was...testing."

"And we passed?" It hadn't occurred to him
that the sea hag would be aware of their approach.

"Yes." The mermaid didn't look pleased with
her answer. Her lips pressed together and her hand rose to hold the
vial that hung from her neck.

Remembering how he'd been tempted to toss
the piece of jewelry into the ocean's depths, he motioned to it.
"Is that important?"

She stilled, and alarm shone in her eyes.
She took a step back, causing him to immediately regret his
question. He held up a hand to reassure her. "I shouldn't have
asked. Obviously, it is important to you or you wouldn't wear
it."

She licked her lips and slowly nodded. She
didn't, however, relax or loosen her tight grip on the vial. "It
is. My mother gave it to me when I was born."

"Really?" He made a point not to look at the
vial again. Instead, he focused on the female who wore it.

The decision was a bad one. His heart
thumped, and he felt his body take a step toward her. She drew him
as surely as fresh blood, but knew, while he had relished the small
taste of her blood that he'd had, what drew him was even more
elemental than that.

There was something about the mermaid that
promised peace and contentment. Something that made him think with
her he could relax, go back to being who he'd been before he'd met
the vampire, before he'd become a monster.

He moved toward her, pulled by some
invisible string. She glanced over her shoulder, toward the sea,
and for a moment he thought she would dive in and leave him
standing alone on the yacht.

But then she looked back.

She sighed and her shoulders lowered. Her
expression changed from alarm to resigned surrender, as if she was
as incapable of fighting whatever pulled them together as he
was.

Relieved, he closed the space between them,
slipped his fingers into her hair and pulled her mouth to his.

She was kissing a human, again.

Sarina closed her eyes, closing out the
sight of the ocean and the eyes she imagined staring at her from
its depths.

Mermaids used humans. They didn't mate with
them, or have feelings for them.

But Sarina could feel that she was on the
verge of doing both. She wanted Nolan's touch, wanted to feel his
lips on hers, wanted his arms around her.

She wanted him.

His hands moved from her hair, down her
body, over her shoulders and arms, to her hips. His thumbs caressed
the curve of her waist through her gauzy shirt. The tips of her
breasts were hard and sensitive, and as the material grazed them,
she wiggled. Desire was building deep inside her.

She knew how humans mated, but had never
thought of how it would feel, how she would feel.

Nolan’s hand moved upward, and she found
herself arching toward him. Her breasts felt heavy and ached with
the need to be touched. His fingers lifted and caressed and a moan
fell from her lips.

She stepped closer, until her pelvis pressed
against his thigh. His sex was hard and strangely, she found that
exciting. She moaned again. A song was building inside her.

She murmured a few words, unable to keep it
inside.

His hands moved again, cupping her butt,
kneading the flesh there and pulling her even tighter against
him.

Unable to resist touching him, she placed
her hands on his chest and pulled at his water-soaked clothes. His
shirt fell to the ground with a slap and she was free to move her
fingers over his skin—still cold and damp from the water. She ran
her lips over his skin. He tasted of salt and the ocean. A new
thrill ran through her. He smelled of the sea too.

She ran her nose from his neck to his chest,
inhaling the scent of sea and man and knowing she would never smell
or taste anything more intoxicating.

Giddy with desire and new sensations, she
bent and trailed her tongue down his chest to the hard planes of
his stomach. His abdomen was flat and muscled, nothing like the
sailors she'd seen in the past. They had been wiry, almost
emaciated, not muscled and strong. And their smell...of sweat and
ale...had soured her stomach, not drawn her like a bee to a
flower.

"You're beautiful," Nolan murmured

Others had said the words, but they had
always been laced with an unspoken "what can I get from you."
Sailors believing the tales of mermaid treasure, or hunting
mermaids for fame and the fortune they thought would come in
selling the females to circus side-shows.

Those men had all died for their words and
intentions.

But Nolan's voice held no hint of ulterior
motive. He believed what he said, and simply reveled in her
beauty.

Sarina felt a flush of pride flow over her
body. She moved her hands again, running them over his chest and
back, memorizing each plane and muscular ridge. "You are too," she
whispered.

And he was. She would never have thought it
possible, but this human, or whatever creature he was, was
beautiful...irresistible.

As he leaned down and captured her lips with
his, she suspected she knew how those sailors drawn by mermaids'
songs felt. Caught as if wrapped in a net, but filled with joy that
the net had chosen her to ensnare.

Nolan's heart beat so fast, he could for
that moment almost believe he was still alive. Sarina's magic was
that real, her touch that intoxicating. Being with her made him
forget what he'd become, forget everything but the thrill of being
with another being, touched...accepted.

He ran his hands, the palms flat, down her
shoulders and arms. The gauzy material of her shirt clung to her
skin. He could see through it, see her dark nipples as they rose
and fell with each of her breaths, and see the outline of her waist
giving way to the curve of her hips.

He bit his lip and tasted his own blood,
closed his eyes for a second and listened to the beat of his
heart.

Then he listened to hers. Steady and sure,
alluring.

Sarina's tongue moved over his lip, licking
up the bit of blood his fang had drawn. He froze, wondering if she
would solve the puzzle—realize what he was, then run, repulsed.

But she only moved closer, her arms winding
around his waist and pulling him so tight against her, he found
himself matching his breaths to hers. She licked his lip again. Her
tongue dragged across his fang. She inhaled sharply, surprised, and
he stiffened, again prepared for rejection, but she only murmured
something under her breath and continued to kiss him.

Her tongue's contact with his fang had left
a mark though ...blood, hers, sweet and almost...fizzy...flavored
her kiss.

His body tightened; his mind tightened. The
world changed, became sharper and more alive.

"Vampire," she murmured. "I thought you were
myths."

"Monsters," he replied, his world turning
dark. Resolved, he closed his eyes again, this time to shut the
image of her reaction out of his view.

She laughed, a strange sound that made him
open his eyes. Hers, clear and green, stared back at him. "Fangs
don't make a monster; actions do." Then she wove her finger into
his hair and pulled his mouth to hers.

Her kiss was strong and sweet. As if the
knowledge that he was a vampire encouraged and empowered her. Her
hands moved to his pants. She undid the snap and shoved the wet
material aside.

"I've never been with a human. Never mated
as one," she said, her voice soft as if confessing. "Mermaids don't
do that, not lightly."

He understood then. She was telling him
this...what they were about to do...was no small act for her.

But it wasn't for Nolan either.

He stepped out of his pants and pulled her
against his naked form. "What I am doesn't bother you?" He needed
to hear the words.

She laughed again and tossed her hair away
from her face. "Does what I am bother you?"

It was a ridiculous question, but then so
was their situation—a vampire and a mermaid, two creatures most of
the world didn't believe existed making love in the sea hag's
realm.

"No," he replied, then he slipped his thigh
between hers and lowered his mouth to her throat.

His fangs pierced her skin, clean and
sudden. Her body jerked, and her fingers dug into his arms. She
moaned and arched her back, pushing her sex more tightly against
his thigh.

Her blood flowed slow and thick, almost as
thick as his own. Sweet and effervescent, like dense sparkling
wine.

She leaned back against the railing, and he
lifted her up, so her buttocks perched on the polished metal. She
opened her thighs, and he stepped between them, his mouth never
leaving her neck.

He moved his hands down and lifted her
shirt, baring her breasts to the night air. Her they were full and
heavy. His sex hardened, and he knew he couldn't wait any
longer.

He pulled his fangs from her throat, lapping
at the wound to close it before leaning back to catch her gaze with
his. "Are you—"

She leaned forward, shifting her weight from
the railing to his waist. Her arms on his shoulders, she stared
down at him and started to sing.

This song was different from the one she'd
sung before, sad, but also happy. As if she was mourning something
that had gone on before, while rejoicing in the changes that loss
had brought.

And suddenly he was happy too. He was a
vampire, and he'd lost his family because of it, but he had found
Sarina, a creature he would never have believed existed.

Her lips touched his, and he opened his
mouth for her. Her breasts slid over his chest and her legs down
his back. She was wrapped around him, clinging to him as if she
would never let go.

He clung to her too. His hands under her
buttocks, he lowered her more, until his erection pressed against
her sex and his heart almost leapt from his chest.

Her song slowed and died. There was no sound
at all except the beat of their hearts and the water lapping
against the hull.

Nolan stepped forward, and Sarina pressed
down. They were one, moving together and blocking out everything
else around them.

Sarina moved up and down, her legs squeezing
Nolan's waist and her hands clutching at his shoulders. Her body
tightened and her breasts tingled. She wanted to arch her back and
scream, wanted to sing in a voice that would reach the seven seas
and more. Knew if she opened her mouth, she would. She couldn't
help it, couldn't stop the song that was building, threatening to
erupt.