Dalton, Tymber - Brimstone Blues [Brimstone Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (7 page)

Praying he didn’t go too far, he attacked, barely managing to throw her to the mat. She jumped to her feet almost faster than he could prepare for the next onslaught. She savaged him for over twenty minutes. He didn’t let her have the advantage—it was all he could do to stay on his feet against her. Then he spotted her tears, hot and heavy, and when he had a chance he threw himself at her and wrapped his arms tightly around her, sweeping her legs out from under her, both falling to the mat. She briefly struggled, sobbing, and then she collapsed against him and cried.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” He held her, rocking her in his arms as she wept, soothing her.

Eventually she relaxed, clutching at him, sniffling occasionally. “How can you put up with me?”

“I love you,
cara
.” He gently brushed the hair out of her face. “I am the lucky one. You still want to be with me after the hell I’ve brought you into.”

She sat up. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

He smiled. “No, you didn’t hurt me. I think we need to spend more time in here together. It’s a great way to release built-up tension. This is why I have this room. There’s something about sparring that is emotionally satisfying, where simply exercising is not.”

She nodded.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“A little better.”

“Want to try the swords?” She shook her head and he clarified. “The practice swords.”

“I’m not trained in that. I only dabbled a little.”

He stood and helped her to her feet. “That’s all right.” He took two of the bamboo training swords from the cabinet and handed her one. “Just do what I do.” He assumed a stance. “
Yoi
!”

She mimicked him.

“Good.” He slowly worked through the form with her. As with other skills in her life, she was a quick study. Within twenty minutes, they were slowly, gently sparring with the practice swords. When they finished the first round, he straightened and nodded. “Want to try it harder?”

A sly smile swept across her face. “You talking about the practice swords?”

He grinned. “Maybe. Maybe not. One more round, and then we can go upstairs.” Her mood had shifted, lifted, lightened. This had done her a world of good, he sensed.

“Okay.”

“
Yoi
!” They picked up the pace. Matthias allowed her no quarter. At one point, he thought he had her cornered when she slipped past him, wheeled around and pinned him to the wall, her eyes blazing, breathing heavy.

He held up his hands in surrender, smiling. “Match to you, my love.”

She dropped the practice sword and threw herself at him. He caught her and they fell to the mats. He rolled her on top of him and worked on her shirt buttons while she devoured his mouth. She shrugged her shirt off, and he helped free her of her bra, cupping her breasts in his hands and sucking her nipples, moving from one to the other while she moaned with need.

“Do it, Matthias,” she hissed, clasping his head to her chest.

He rolled her onto her back and worked his way down her body, quickly parting her from her slacks and underwear. When she was naked, he took his time, gently spreading her legs and bending to her pussy, his tongue flicking at her clit. He slowly teased and tormented her body, refusing to be rushed. With his hands clamped firmly on her hips to prevent her from dislodging him, he wrapped his lips around her swollen clit and flicked at it with his tongue. He held her that way for a while, bringing her close and backing down again, alternating sucking her clit with fucking her with his tongue until she finally wrapped her fingers in his hair.

“Please!” she begged.

He chuckled. “Of course,
cara
.” He increased his efforts, his swollen cock throbbing and desperate to be buried inside her wet pussy. Drawing sharp gasps from her, he quickly brought her to climax.

Shimmying out of his pants, he finally plunged his rigid cock inside her, thrusting, his mouth taking possession of hers again. Her fingers dug into his back and pulled him tightly against her. He slipped his arms under her legs and lifted them, giving him deeper access as he stroked his cock inside her, feeling his release building.

“I love you, Taz,” he whispered, his eyes locked onto hers. “You’re the only woman I ever want.”

“Then take me, big guy, because I’m all yours.”

He felt his own orgasm start. At the last second he realized he didn’t have a condom on and pulled out, her moan of disappointment mixing with his growl of interrupted release. “Dammit.” He collapsed on top of her, kissing the base of her throat. “I’m sorry.”

“What happened?”

“We got a little carried away, sweetheart. It’s no longer safe to do this without precautions until your Pill kicks in.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, Matthias.”

“No. Don’t apologize.” He kissed her again, sweeping his tongue over her lips and down her jaw to her ear. “It just means we can go upstairs and do it right this time.”

She shivered with desire. “Then let’s get cracking.”

She started to slide out from under him when he grabbed her.

“Get dressed first, darling. We’re not home alone.”

She groaned. “Thank you for reminding me.”

“Albert and Tim wouldn’t let us hear the end of it if we paraded around here naked.”

* * * *

Going to work Friday morning was easier. Taz didn’t hesitate to walk past the conference room anymore. Matthias still didn’t come to the office, not that she would have minded seeing him today, even though he was a pleasant distraction. Then again, now that she was his fiancée and they’d already made wild monkey love from one end of the country to the other, it might not be as much of an issue.

When she first took the job, seeing him in the gym or in the hallway set her heart aflutter and her loins athrobbin’. He was a handsome, stunning man. Not in the traditional sense, but with those deep-blue eyes and his vamp mojo, she couldn’t help herself. Getting to know him better, going through what they did, only made her love him more. She knew he’d die for her, almost did die for her.

She’d never had that before.

* * * *

Taz felt exhausted by three o’clock Friday afternoon and knew she was too wiped out to do any good. She packed her laptop, grabbed some files to work on, and drove home. There she kicked off her heels and changed into an oversized T-shirt and pair of flannel pajama pants to chill out.

Robertson brought two Amazon.com boxes into the library. “By the way, these came for you today.” He wore a puzzled look.

“Oh, goodie! They’re here!” Taz squealed and ran to take the boxes from him.

When Matthias returned home later, he was surprised to find her curled up in the living room, season one of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
on the DVD player, and books scattered across the coffee table. He picked one up. “
Undead and Unwed
.” He looked at Taz.

“Hey, she’s a good writer. Her books are funny.”

He put the book down. “Why, dare I ask, do you have all of this?”

“Well, I wanted to learn more about vampires.”

No, actually she wanted to bust his balls and distract herself, but hey, whatever.

He shook his head. “This is
not
the way to go about it.”

“Well, since the Masonic, ‘To be one, ask one,’ approach has gotten me absolute shit from you guys, the next best thing is research.”

“You know all of this is just fiction. It’s not real.” He swept his hand, indicating the large pile of books and DVDs. “This has no truth to it whatsoever. We explained that.”

Of course she knew, but she did it to torque Matthias and the other men as much as she did because she needed a distraction. “I can’t rely on Wikipedia to get it right, can I?”

He sat, carefully picking his words. “I’m sorry it’s been crazy. This, however, is not the way to go about it.”

“Considering you haven’t made much time to answer my questions, and every time I ask Robertson something he says, ‘I don’t know,’ I had to do something. I’m going out of my friggin’ gourd and I need something to distract me. Besides”—she pointed to the screen—“it’s my favorite TV show.”

He closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose. “All right, Taz. What do you want to know?”

Point made, she had his attention. She closed her book. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

* * * *

Matthias fought the urge to scream in frustration. He had to be truly in love with her, because no woman since Sarah had ever driven him to such distraction. He knew she was still on edge and unsettled. It was a little over a week since Rafael’s death, barely two weeks since the revelation of her true nature. Plus her powers were awakening at a…dare he say scary pace? She was more powerful than any vampire he’d ever met. Way more powerful than himself, which said quite a lot.

“All right. Just know that whenever you want to talk, I’m here.”

She raised her eyebrow at him. “Yeah. Riiiight. Seems like every time I’ve wanted to talk hasn’t been the right time.”

“I’m here right now, ready to talk.”

At first she defiantly met his gaze. Then her green eyes brimmed with tears and she collapsed against him.

He held her, stroking her back, his face buried in her hair. In many ways she was an indestructible force of nature. In others, she was as fragile as a child.

“Don’t force it, Taz,” he whispered. “Don’t try to pigeonhole everything into neat explanations. Don’t set a timetable for yourself to have this under control. I wanted to take years to ease you through this transition for damn good reason.”

“I hate this. I
hate
feeling like this. I hate feeling out of control. I hate it.”

“I know.”

“I love you, Matthias,” she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head and tightly hugged her. “I know, darling. I know you do.”

“I’m sorry that—”

“Shh. The past doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except that I love you and I will do whatever I can to make this up to you.”

She sat up and looked at him. He had to fight not to lose himself in her beautiful green eyes. She wasn’t trying to control him, but he loved her so much he couldn’t help himself around her.

“Matthias, you don’t owe me anything.”

“Yes, I do. And no, you don’t have me under a spell,
cara
. I have seen more than you can ever imagine, been through more. We don’t need to get into this all right now, you have enough to deal with. Over time, you will come to understand why I can feel the way I feel right now.” He caressed her cheek. “You’re right that we’re not ‘normal.’ With that comes the understanding only gained through centuries of living, centuries of dealing with love and loss and human nature. I’ve learned in my time what matters and what does not. And you matter to me.”

She closed her eyes and took his hand, nuzzling his palm. “Thank you,” she whispered.

* * * *

Saturday morning, Taz walked into the kitchen and heard the three men deep in discussion. Upon her entrance they fell silent, looking at her.

“Yeah, that was real subtle, boys.” She walked to the cabinet and found her coffee mug. “What’s going on?”

Matthias hesitated. She turned to him, seeing in his mind what they were discussing.