Fresh Blood (10 page)

She wrapped her legs around him and he held
her another few inches higher, positioning her above him. He
lowered her as he thrust upward and she bit her lip at the sweet
sensation as he took possession of her body.

* * * *

Max drank deeply as he entered her, then
released his hold on her neck. It wasn’t about feeding anymore. He
took just enough blood to fuel his desire to the breaking point.
Now, with her essence inside him, he was ready to show her exactly
what his world was like.

He wrapped his arms around her and carried
her to the bedroom. They didn’t make it to the bed. He placed her
on the floor and knelt over her, delving deeper while she moved
against him.

“Open your eyes,” he commanded. “I need to
see it.”

She obeyed and he kissed her, plunging his
tongue deep. She still tasted like the wine and now, mixed in her
scent was musk and primal fear, lust and anger. He craved it all,
every emotion, every sensation. He took it all in and let it wash
over her, using his ability to shape her perception so that she
felt his desperate need mixed with her own. He made her feel his
heart pounding under her hands as he took her, made her feel his
skin grow slick with sweat as he worked her body to the breaking
point.

When her inner muscles began to pulse, he
slowed his thrusts. With long-practiced skill he allowed a calming
sensation to wash over her, cooling her desire just enough to bring
her back from the edge. Then he started again.

* * * *

Erica felt her climax nearing. She reached
for it, meeting Max thrust for thrust. She locked her legs around
his back and dragged her nails over his skin, drawing him deeper
until she thought she would break. At the very moment the wave
crested, a cool breeze seemed to stir between them and it pulled
her away from the edge of the precipice.

She lay panting beneath him for a moment,
lost in his blue gaze, aware of nothing but the delicious pressure
of his erection inside her. He drew out slowly and she whimpered
for him. He thrust in again and bent to take one aching nipple in
his mouth. He sucked the hard tip and rolled it against his tongue,
causing a sensation that arrowed straight to her womb.

“Don’t stop!” She begged him over and over
and time and time again he brought her right to the edge, then
soothed the ache just before the wave broke over her.

The pleasure became pain and the desire
became a frantic battle for release. “Now! Now!” She pleaded for it
but he ignored her demands and continued the exquisite torture,
bringing her right to the edge once more.

“Last night,” he said between thrusts, “you
asked if I was going to punish you for disobedience. The answer is
yes.”

She threw her head back and laughed, but the
laugh became a sob when she nearly peaked again. “Not like this,”
she gasped.

“What would you have me do? Hold you down?
Tie you up? Spank you?”

Anything would be preferable to denying her
release. She wanted it, needed it. Erica had never begged a man for
anything, but she begged Max to let her come.

“Promise me one thing, and I’ll give you what
you want.”

“Anything!” She agreed without thought. All
she wanted was the shuddering explosion that would free her from
his thrall. She bucked against him and he stilled her with his
body, holding her motionless as he kissed her into silence.

“Promise me you’ll let me handle the case
from now on. My way. I won’t take you to any more bars where you
could be drugged or touched by another man...or woman again.
Promise me you’ll keep yourself safe and let me find your sister
for you.”

Erica let out a cry of frustration. She was
so close, so desperate and so completely at his mercy, she would
have done anything he asked, obeyed any command he gave her. But
this ....

She nodded. “I promise.”

He kissed her again and she cried as the ache
ebbed once more. When he began to thrust into her again, she held
her breath, waiting for the moment he’d take it all away, but this
time he brought her to the edge and over. The orgasm she’d been
dying for tore through her and she gasped as it rocked her body
into utter oblivion.

She cried out as he came, the tremors of his
body matching hers. She felt him explode inside her, a burst of
liquid heat that had to be an illusion, a delicious, sensuous
illusion.

When the shock waves ceased, her body
trembled and she shivered in his embrace. After a moment, Max rose
above her. He kissed her once more and then lifted her in his arms
and carried her to the bed. The soft blankets felt like clouds
beneath her aching limbs. She shuddered at the sensation as he drew
the sheet across her body. Her nerve endings trembled as he
caressed her. Every touch was like an electric shock. After a time,
her inner muscles calmed and she sank into a blissful sleep as he
climbed into bed next to her and wrapped himself around her.

“Erica,” he whispered as he kissed her hair
and settled her head onto his chest. “What am I going to do with
you?”

“Anything you want,” she mumbled as she clung
to him. “Anything you want.”

Erica wrapped her arms around her bent knees
and stared down at Max’s sleeping form. At first she’d panicked to
find him lying next to her, unmoving and cold. She thought he was
dead.

Of course, she was right.

She reached out and smoothed his dark hair
and he stirred, but his skin didn’t warm to her touch and his chest
didn’t rise and fall.

She sat back and contemplated how she’d come
to this.

She’d never experienced anything like what
Max had done to her that morning. At twenty-nine, she was no
virgin, though her previous lovers numbered in single digits. She’d
always chosen her men carefully, with an eye toward their reliable
nature, rather than expertise in bed. Up until now she’d never had
a man last so long or exert so much control over every nuance of
the act. She’d never had a man control her orgasm before--and hold
her captive with it as he had. She’d have promised him anything ...
hell, she’d have given him her body if he hadn’t already been
inside her.

She shivered at the memory. He’d been so
alive while they were making love ... or was it just sex? If Max
only wanted what her body could provide him, why had he forced her
to make that promise to him? Why did he want her to stay safely out
of the investigation? Was it truly because he cared about her,
maybe even loved her? Or was it because he knew that his world was
too much for her?

What scared her most was how strong she felt
now. Surrendering to him, to her innermost desires, made her feel
invincible. A small part of her wanted more even now. She wanted to
wake him up and tell him yes, hold me down. Tie me up. Bite me.

Who was she? How had she become this creature
who sat staring at the body of her vampire lover wishing he’d awake
and punish her for her aberrant thoughts?

She shook herself out of the psychological
quagmire and climbed out of bed. She hesitated a moment, her
attention captured by her own reflection in the mirror. When she
looked at the bed, she saw only a blur of color where Max lay. When
she turned she saw him in full detail, lying on his stomach,
clutching a pillow under his head.

In the mirror, nothing. She couldn’t focus on
his image. Did that mean he wasn’t real? She glanced at the clock.
It was close to noon. If she opened the window shade and sunlight
struck the bed, what would happen?

She shook off that disturbing thought and
strolled into the living room to straighten up. It was only when
she found her robe and his towel next to the couch, which she
realized for the first time in her life, she’d walked through her
apartment naked.

She laughed softly. The old Erica never would
have done that. Where had the old Erica gone?

She jumped when the phone rang, suddenly
self-conscious. It could have just as easily been the doorbell. She
pounced on the receiver before the second ring and wondered why it
mattered to her if the noise disturbed Max.

“Hello?” She tried to sound normal.

“Ricki?”

Erica clutched the wall between the living
room and the kitchen as the good humor drained out of her body like
molten lead. The shock of hearing Elena’s voice doubled her
over.

“Lainey! Where are you? What happened?” The
memory of her sister’s voice crying through the vent at Gregori’s
rushed back into her mind. How had she forgotten that until now?
“Where are you, Lainey, tell me now and I’ll come and get you.”

“I don’t have a lot of time, Ricki. Only a
few minutes. I need you to come to a place called The Underside,
tonight…come alone.”

“I’ll come right now. Lainey, are you all
right? What’s happening to you? Did they hurt you?”

“It’s Benton Carlisle. He’s keeping me here.
I need you, Ricki. You’re the only one who can help me.”

“Of course.” Erica’s hands shook so violently
she almost dropped the phone. “I’ll be there, Lainey--I’ll come
right now.”

“No. Not now. Tonight. I won’t be able to get
free until tonight. Come after midnight and come alone. They know
about Max and if they see him here, they’ll hurt me. I have a plan
to get away, Ricki, but I need your help.”

Erica nodded. “Okay, okay. Lainey ... it’ll
be all right. I’ll get you out and we’ll find a safe place for you,
I promise, this time will be different. Lainey? Lainey?” The only
response was a dial tone.

Erica sank to the floor and stared at the
cordless in her hand. At least Elena was alive. She sounded fine in
fact, strong ... not drunk or stoned. That was good.

After a few deep breaths, Erica rose and
returned the phone to its cradle. She glanced down the hall at the
bedroom and listened. There was no sound. No snoring as she might
have expected with a man in her bed, no gentle rhythmic breathing
either. She had to remind herself, Maxwell Hart was dead to the
world. Literally.

She sighed. She’d made him a promise--albeit
under duress. She wondered what he’d do to her if he found out she
was about to break it.

* * * *

“I’ll be out of your way by 6:00,” Max told
Erica as he watched her washing dishes. Sitting at her small
kitchen table with his notebook and a cup of coffee that she
insisted on making for him, he felt as close to human as he had in
over a century.

Watching her denim clad rear end wiggle as
she scrubbed a frying pan certainly added to the illusion. He had a
raging hard on but absolutely no hint of hunger. He wanted to make
love to her, but as a man, not as a vampire who tempered his need
for blood with sexual demands so that both hunter and prey could
derive pleasure from the union.

He just wanted to touch her, play with her
hair, taste her skin and feel her come around him without any power
play. No games. No blood.

He hadn’t wanted that in a long time and in
truth, it worried him. He couldn’t enjoy his normal male desire
without wondering why it had returned after all these years of
heightened vampire urges. After decades of hearing the rush of
blood under a woman’s skin when he touched her, of tasting her
emotions on his lips, he reveled in the normalcy of this moment. He
reveled in watching her wash the dishes and wondered what she was
thinking.

“What are you planning to do tonight?” she
asked him as she completed her task. She stacked dishes neatly in
the drain board and turned to him, the damp dishtowel tossed over
her shoulder.

With her golden hair hanging down to her
shoulders and not a hint of makeup, she was beautiful. She looked
sunny and warm and alive. It made the dark empty spot where his
heart used to beat ache to look at her. He wanted that feeling
wrapped around him, in fact he craved it now more than blood. He’d
felt alive when he made love to her. He felt human.

“I’m ... uh ... going to talk to some of my
contacts. There’s always someone at Gregori’s and they can snoop
around. I’m also going to arrange for someone to follow Benton
Carlisle and Vera Nighe.”

“Why?”

“He’s involved in something. I really think
Vera drugged you and that has me worried. I don’t want you to go
anywhere tonight. Once it gets dark, stay inside and keep all the
shades drawn. Don’t answer the door unless it’s me.”

She smiled shyly at him and reached for his
hand. “Will you be coming back tonight? When you’re done
working?”

“Would you like me to? I’ll be very late. I
don’t want to wake you.”

“Sure you do,” she purred and his body
stirred in response. “But I have to go to work tomorrow. And I’ve
got to get to the bank before that so I can transfer the money to
pay Elena’s rent.”

“I wish you didn’t have to do that.”

Her expression faltered. “I don’t want her to
lose her apartment. She’ll pay me back.”

That wasn’t true. Max saw it in her eyes. She
wasn’t expecting anything in return for her efforts to help her
sister--probably because she’d learned long ago not to.

“Give me her address and I’ll go there
tonight and get something of hers I can use to track her with.”

“But the landlord--”

Max laughed. “I won’t be asking the
landlord’s permission. I won’t disturb anything. I just need a
piece of her clothing. A scarf would be perfect or a blouse with a
collar. Maybe something with her favorite perfume on it.”

“All right. She lived ... lives at 420
Fortune Drive, Building A, apartment 5.”

Though he didn’t need to, Max wrote it down.
He’d learn a lot more from looking around Elena Talbot’s apartment
than just what she smelled like, and he was glad for the chance to
do it without Erica along. He had a feeling he would find things
there that even her sister didn’t know about. His desire to protect
Erica was starting to overwhelm him. He’d never felt like this
before and it left him off balance and edgy.