Fashionably Dead Down Under (23 page)

“If I open the doors in my mind can you come
in and see? I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

He hesitated. “You won’t be able to hide
anything, not one single thought or feeling,” he warned.

“I don’t want to hide from you. Ever.”

His smile melted my insides, but unease
consumed me. What if he was disgusted that I had shown mercy?

“I won’t judge. I will just watch,” he
said.

“Famous last words,” I muttered and unlocked
the door in my head. Seated in a chair across the room from him, I
closed my eyes and pulled up the horrifically sad scene.

What felt like eons later, I sat still and
kept my eyes tightly shut. Leaning forward in my chair, my stomach
churned and I waited for the bomb to explode. He had seen it all
and I felt ill at having to relive it. As sure as I was that I had
done the right thing, it was still heartbreaking and
frightening.

“Our son is amazing,” he said softly.

I opened my eyes to find him kneeling in
front of me. He was awed and his eyes blazed a brilliant green.

“You don’t think I was wrong?” My voice
sounded childlike and far away.

“I think I have much to learn from you. Your
compassion and bravery astound and humble me.” He put his fingers
under my chin and forced me to meet his eyes. “You are my world and
I love you.”

The waterworks flowed freely and I threw
myself into his strong embrace. His strength and beauty overwhelmed
me, but his love almost incapacitated me. How did this man feel
this way about me?

His full lips gently feathered mine and I
breathed him in. His scent made me dizzy with desire and his mouth
was shorting out my brain.

“You’re overdressed,” he murmured as his
fangs grazed my collarbone.

“I’m in a towel.” I giggled and let my head
fall back to give him better access.

“Exactly.” He ripped the towel from my heated
body and stared. The need in his eyes matched the enormous bulge in
his pants. My breath caught in my throat and my limbs went watery.
“You are mine.”

“And you are mine,” I said, slowly getting to
my feet and pushing him toward the bed. “Stop. Don’t move.” I
dropped to my knees and unbuttoned his jeans. The simple sound of
the zipper coming down in the otherwise silent room was as erotic
as anything I’d ever heard. “Hands behind your back,” I ordered as
he went to slide his pants down his legs. “I’m in charge.”

“For the moment,” he replied huskily and
watched me through hooded eyes.

I released him from his jeans and boxer
briefs and came face to face with one of the most gorgeous parts of
his body. I eyed the monster with delight and anticipation. A slow
heat coiled in my lower abdomen as I put my lips on the head of his
cock. His hissed reaction and muttered curses made me want to make
him lose his mind—the same way he made me lose mine.

I used my tongue to make him slippery and
took my sweet time easing him to the back of my throat. The pool of
moisture between my legs made me squirm, and his groan as I took
him deep in my mouth made me tingle all over.

“Astrid, stop,” he said gruffly. “If you
don’t it will be all over before we begin.”

“But you’re a Vampyre,” I teased. “You can go
for days.”

“This is true, but the first time I come
tonight will be inside you.”

In less than a second, he had me beneath him
on the bed. I shrieked in protest and he pinned my arms over my
head. His half smirk sent my girlie parts into fits and I wriggled
beneath him for all I was worth.

“Tonight I will make you scream,” he
threatened. His fangs gleamed and his eyes were wild. “I will own
you in every way a man can own a woman. Do you understand?”

“You already do,” I gasped, more excited than
I thought possible.

“No.” He chuckled. “But I will.”

I had no clue what he meant, but I didn’t
care. I would willingly give him whatever he desired—over and over
again. His lips latched onto my breast and he sucked my tender
nipple into his mouth with a harsh pull. My back arched and my hips
bucked. When he sank his fangs into the soft flesh I cried out in
pain mixed with intense pleasure. He brought me to the point where
the two meshed and were indistinguishable. With my hands suddenly
free, I raked my nails down his back. His muffled chuckle at my
breast made me see stars.

I was on the verge of an orgasm and he hadn’t
even moved from my breast.

“Ethan, I’m going to come,” I gasped.

“Be my guest,” he said as he divided his
attention between both breasts.

And I did.

Colors blew through my brain behind my closed
lids and a scream tore from my lips. My body grew hot and
everything clenched, drawing out the pleasure. It didn’t matter
where we were, he was my home and he always would be.

“I need to be inside you.” His hands grasped
my wrists again and forced them over my head. I opened my legs to
welcome him, but he spread them wider with his knees. Keeping my
arms pinned with one hand he stroked himself and watched all the
expressions flitting across my flushed face. “Do you want to be
fucked?” he asked in a strained voice. The veins on his neck stood
out and my fangs descended. My voice was raw from my screams and I
searched for sound as he waited. “Answer me.”

“Yes,” I croaked through my raw throat.

“You’ll have to do better than that.” He
grinned and stroked himself with more force.

“Please,” I begged. “Please.”

“Please what?”

God, he was a bitch, but he knew how to crank
all my buttons. Undulating beneath him, I tried to press the issue,
but his restraint was massive.

“Please fuck me,” I whimpered. Everything
felt swollen and needy and I want him to take me, to relieve me, to
fuck me until I couldn’t make a sound.

“Not quite yet,” he said as he lowered his
head between my legs. I gasped and tensed as I felt his fangs nip
at my clit.

“Ethan, I . . . ” I started, but his tongue
took over and words left me.

“Shhhh, don’t think. Just feel,” he purred
and the rumble of his voice on my sex made me shudder. My hips
rocked and I tangled my hands in his thick blond hair to pull him
closer. His fingers dug into my thighs as his mouth did magic
things.

His hands left my thighs, grasped my ass and
raised me off the bed, giving him more open and vulnerable access
to the parts of my body he was plundering. His fingers slid between
the cheeks of my ass, pausing at the area I fondly called no man’s
land. The pressure of his insistent fingers on the area he knew was
off limits made me struggle helplessly as he held me tighter.
Trying to get away from his fingers but closer to his mouth was
impossible.

“Ethan, don’t,” I said.

“Am I hurting you?” he asked, glancing up at
me with those damn eyes.

“Um no, but I . . . well.”

“How about this,” he suggested in a tone
laced with sex. “I can promise you that I will make you feel so
good you will pass out screaming. You can’t stop me unless it
hurts. Hurts in a way that you don’t like,” he added with a smile
on his face I was tempted to smack off.

“I . . . ”

“Say yes,” he whispered, tracing my clit with
his thumb. “Say yes.”

This was the man that took me to heights that
were unimaginable. He was magic, power and sex and he scared the
hell out of me in the best way possible. “Yes.”

“Good girl. Such a good sexy girl.” His fangs
scraped the inside of my thigh as his fingers found their way back
to my bottom. I shuddered and closed my eyes as his teeth moved
closer to my center. The sensations of his fangs teasing my clit
while his fingers pressed into my ass made me whimper and moan. The
thought of doing something I had always believed was forbidden
added to the raging fire in my belly.

Trying to stay still was impossible and my
body found a rhythm that pleased itself. I was spiraling to a place
I didn’t recognize. Ethan worked with Vampyre speed and I forgot
what we had even talked about. I was one huge pulsing nerve open
for him to use as he wanted.

I screamed. I screamed so loud I was sure I
could be heard in the Basement of Hell. I screamed as his fangs
pierced into parts of me that I was sure were illegal and his
fingers probed inside of me with expert knowledge of how to make a
woman lose her mind. My body flailed and twisted, needing less and
more as an orgasm of epic proportions ripped through me leaving me
with no coherent thought whatsoever.

“Oh my God,” I gasped in a hoarse voice as
aftershocks rocked me.

“That’s just the beginning,” he said, moving
up my body and settling himself between my legs.

He pushed only the head of his cock into me
and held still as my orgasm pulsed on. He moaned as my body
contracted around his and the muscles in his neck strained as he
fought to hold out.

“Fuck me,” I begged. “Fuck me hard.”

His concentration snapped and he slammed into
my body. As wet and softened as I was, I was still never prepared
for his size. I cried out in pleasure and pain as he sheathed
himself in me to the hilt. His mouth found my neck and his tongue
drew small tight circles around my veins as my body found his
rhythm and I met him thrust for thrust. The heat in my abdomen
unfurled and shot through my limbs.

The speed and intensity would have killed a
mere mortal, but we weren’t mortal. We were Vampyres and I wanted
more than just sex. I wanted blood.

“Bite me,” I moaned as I grew closer to
another orgasm. “Now,” I hissed as I tightened and clamped around
him. He bit down and I cried out with what little voice I had left.
The sheer electric force of all the things happening at once were
too much. The pulse in his neck called to me and my fangs ached
with need. I pressed my lips to his neck and bit.

His shout of pleasure as he came rocked me
into darkness. Little explosions of bright golden light burst
behind my tightly closed eyes and his lips found mine. I kissed him
as if my life depended on it and our tongues tangled and
fought.

With our bodies still merged as one, I held
on tight. He showered my face and neck with kisses and I breathed
him in. He was as essential to me as blood. I needed him to exist.
I loved him with everything I had . . . and I knew he loved me
too.

“Was I right?” he asked smugly.

“Um, yes . . . yes, you were,” I admitted. If
I was still capable of blushing I’d be as red as my hair. “You just
about killed me.” I giggled and buried my face in his strong
neck.

“Come with me,” he said, hopping out of the
bed.

“Where are we going?” I followed him out to
the living room.

“We’re going to christen every square inch of
this house,” he informed me with an evil glint in his sparkling
eyes.

“Oh we are, are we?”

“Yes, my love. We are.”

And we did.

“I’m sure the bastard cheated, but I can’t
prove it,” Satan said as he picked at his breakfast.

“You do realize that you just called Mister
Rogers a bastard?” I laughed at the incongruity. My uncle was quite
put out with losing and was even more displeased with the deal that
had been struck.

“It makes no sense,” he pouted. “I was
cheating and he still won.”

“Do ya think there might be a lesson there?”
I asked and he rolled his mesmerizing eyes.

“Absolutely not.”

The dining room was massive and as overblown
as the rest of the palace. With only three of us at the table the
room felt positively cavernous. The table had to seat at least
thirty. A buffet was laid out for a king—exotic fruits, homemade
breads and jams, pancakes and waffles, muffins and an array of
freshly squeezed juices. The maple syrup sat in a bowl of steaming
water. The smells were divine and I wished for the umpteenth time I
could still eat food.

“I’d offer you some blood, but we don’t keep
it on hand,” he said. “I assume from your rosy cheek color and the
smell of sex you are both quite satisfied.”

“Um, not that it’s any of your business,” I
said, completely embarrassed. “But yes, we’re fine.”

“So, first things first,” he said jovially.
“You’ll be delighted to know Lust has been appropriately punished
and humiliated. Would you like to know what I did?”

“No,” I said at the same time Ethan said,
“Yes.”

“Two against one.” Satan laughed and clapped
his hands. “I shall tell you. I do have to congratulate myself. It
was quite a creative punishment and one she won’t forget anytime
soon.”

I really didn’t want to know, but Satan
wanted to brag on his brilliance. I had no choice, but when the
reality of what he’d done actually hit I was mortified. However,
Ethan seemed quite pleased.

“What did you just say?” I yelled. “You did
what?”

“Do you not understand English?” my uncle
asked with a wolfish grin on his face. Ethan glanced down to hide
his smile. I kicked him under the table and turned my furious gaze
back on my uncle.

“Tell me you’re joking,” I snapped.

“Not even a little bit,” he replied. “Think
about it, beautiful niece, it makes perfect sense. In order to hit
someone where it will hurt, you must tap into their basest
desires.”

“But it was an invasion of my privacy.” I
crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at the
Devil.

“Your disrespect is so invigorating,” he
shouted with glee.

“So you put her in a cage outside of our
guest house and made her listen to us have sex all night?” I was
flabbergasted, grossed out and a tiny bit impressed with his
evilness.

“Yes, you are correct. And from everything
I’ve heard it was quite vocal and completely out of control.” He
winked at Ethan.

“Oh my God,” I muttered and pressed my
fingers to the bridge of my nose. Last night had been a loud one,
even for me. “That is just sick.”