Fresh Blood (9 page)

“I need you, Max. I need to feel something.
Pleasure, pain, I don’t care. Just make me feel something.”

Max growled. The loneliness in her voice tore
through him, touching memories he’d worked hard to suppress. How
could he tell her he knew how she felt? He’d spent so many years
not sure if he was living because nothing touched him since the
night he’d been turned, lured by what he thought was a hot-blooded
woman into a cold-water flat on the East End. No warm-blooded being
came near him for decades after that unless he willed them to so he
could feed from them. All he’d wanted for so long was to be
touched, to be wanted like Erica wanted him now.

He allowed himself to caress her neck and
shoulders, then slid one hand to the zipper of her dress. He tugged
it down inch by inch to the small of her back exposing an expanse
of perfect skin. When he ran his fingertips down the elegant ridge
of her spine, her skin pebbled and she shivered deliciously.

He parted the V of black satin and let the
dress fall over her hips and into a puddle on the floor. The sound
she made as she leaned against him caused his aching cock to pulse
with need. This is wrong, he told himself. If he indulged his
fantasy too much longer, he’d lose control completely.

Before she made another sound, he scooped her
up in his arms and carried her down the hall to the bedroom. The
darkness made no difference to his enhanced eyesight. He saw as
clearly as if the lights were on. The bed was larger than he’d have
imagined for a woman who lived alone. Covered with a plumb-colored
spread just a shade darker than the carpet, and heaped with satiny
throw pillows, it invited much more than comfortable sleeping.

He drew aside the covers and placed her on
the bed where she stretched sensuously. Her breasts jutted as she
arched--begging him to touch the tight pink nipples and ivory
mounds. She mumbled incoherently to him and reached out to draw him
down on her, but he resisted.

He took her wrists in one hand and held them
over her head. She writhed with pleasure at his demand, reveling in
the power he held over her. Her reaction was almost too much for
him. He could have her like this, dominate her and feel no guilt
because she obviously enjoyed it.

If not for the drug, he’d have mounted her
and shown her everything she wanted to learn.

Instead he took a deep breath and commanded
her to remain still. She obeyed, and her eyes fluttered closed. He
touched her face but she remained that way, finally asleep.

He sighed and reached down to unfasten the
garters that held her stockings in place. One at a time he rolled
the black silk down her legs, exposing the honeyed skin beneath.
Behind her left knee he found a beauty mark that begged him to
taste it. He would have, but the aroma of her skin, her arousal
even in sleep, drove him mad. He had to finish his task and leave
her before he gave in to his desires.

Now, wearing only a black thong, she sighed
and stretched in her sleep. He removed the skimpy scrap of cloth,
lowering it over her thighs slowly and reveling in her final
secrets revealed.

He’d won. He’d undressed her, touched her and
drank in her perfection with his eyes. Satisfied with his own
resolve, he dragged the blankets over her, tucked her in and walked
away.

Tomorrow, when she regained control of her
senses, he’d tell her all about it in excruciating detail and thus
begin her punishment.

* * * *

Erica floated in a sea of sensations. Ribbons
of colored sound carried her high up to a cool mountain peak and
down to a warm ocean of golden sand. She felt wonderful, but
uncertain as well. She remembered tasting the color red, candy
sweet and tempting on Vera’s sumptuous lips. She’d never been
kissed by a woman before, never would have imagined that it could
excite her.

Erica abandoned the troubling thought and
concentrated on her dreamscape. The horizon stretched forever
toward a blue sky filled with buttery clouds.

Elena looked down on her from those clouds
and for an instant Erica tasted death. She cried out and reached
for her sister. As she did, Elena’s face shattered and fell to
earth, making a sound like hail on glass.

She woke to that sound.

Oh God. What had she done?

She turned to look at the window and the
movement caused her head to throb. Sunlight peeked in around the
drawn shade but the thrumming sound continued. So where was it in
coming from?

The shower. She clutched the blankets to her
body and shivered when she realized she was naked beneath them. Her
dress lay neatly over the bedroom chair, her shoes and stockings
sat on the floor beneath it along with her garter and black thong
underwear. Her careful chignon hung around her shoulders and her
mouth and eyes felt gritty.

Whoever was in the shower was whistling.

She cringed.

Then it came back to her in a flood of
disturbing memories. The odd hangover cleared and her stomach,
which moments before had been threatening to rebel, now rumbled for
food.

She remembered only vague details from the
night before and though her recollection was fuzzy, it didn’t
include undressing herself. Max Hart had some explaining to do.

She threw off the blankets and hurried across
the room to retrieve her bathrobe from its place behind the door.
She looked in the mirror and smoothed her hair, then checked
quickly for new bite marks before she closed her robe. Other than
the spot on her neck that he’d drank from the night before, her
skin remained flawless. Lucky for him, she thought.

“Max!” Standing before the bathroom door, she
yelled once as loudly as possible, which only made the throbbing
pain in her head resume with a vengeance. When Max didn’t answer,
she pounded on the door. “Get out here, now!”

She waited a beat and stepped back when the
bathroom door flew open. He wore only a towel, draped around his
neck.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and Erica
managed to hold her comments in check while he slid the towel off
his shoulders and wrapped it around his waist.

“I see you’re up.” He greeted her with a
raised eyebrow.

“You too.” She smirked and for a moment, the
self-conscious look on his face made her forget her anger. Only for
a moment. “What the hell did you do to me last night?”

His eyes darkened and he tilted his head.
“Not half as much as I wanted to.”

Erica swallowed. She felt flushed and she was
suddenly aware of the fact that she wore nothing beneath her thin
cotton robe.

“What was in my drink last night?” she
demanded stepping back as he left the bathroom. He headed for the
living room and she followed him, clutching her robe around
her.

“Some vampires use a combination of herbs to
relax their feeders. Normally it isn’t that potent but you must
have gotten an extra large dose. You’re lucky I got back to you
when I did.”

“You shouldn’t have left me alone.”

“I didn’t have a choice. Benton Carlisle is a
powerful vampire. I had to go with him. And while I was gone you
were supposed to be following the other rules.”

“Well, I tried.”

“Not very hard by the looks of it.”

Erica crossed her arms over her breasts and
watched him while he rooted around her living room gathering his
clothes. A blanket from her linen closet lay over the couch
attesting to where he’d spent the night.

“You wandered off and left me alone at a
vampire orgy, where I got drugged and groped by another woman
and--”

“And kissed. Don’t forget kissed.” He leveled
a sardonic gaze at her.

Erica gaped. That memory came back, too. It
hadn’t been a dream. Vera had been all over her. “And I’m to
blame?”

“You were supposed to be obedient.”

“You told me to be disobedient. Didn’t you?
Or did I misinterpret one of your many mixed signals?”

“What mixed signals?” He spread his arms wide
leaving his towel unattended and hanging precariously.

“Oh let’s see--every one. I don’t know what
to make of you, Max. Before we left here, you were acting like you
wanted to.…”

“Like I wanted to what?”

Erica flushed hot. She couldn’t say the
words. “Then you apparently brought me home, undressed me, and
dumped me in bed ... alone.”

* * * *

Max dropped his gathered clothes and leaned
back, crossing his arms over his chest in a pose similar to
Erica’s. Acutely aware of the fact that she’d already seen what was
under his towel, he wasn’t sure he liked the direction the
conversation was taking. Of course, with the sun up, he was
trapped. Their argument would have to work its way to some type of
conclusion and if they both didn’t get dressed very soon....

“What would you have preferred? That I took
you in the state you were in? Don’t think I didn’t want to. Don’t
think it was easy for me to peel that dress off you ... to slide
your stockings down over your legs, inch off your underwear and
leave you there, in bed unconscious and completely vulnerable.” Max
paused and watched her reaction to his words. A faint tremor racked
her and her breathing grew shallow. He knew she was contemplating
how easy it would have been for him to do whatever he wanted with
her.

“I’m a vampire, Erica. We come into the world
ready to take what we want. It requires a lot of effort for us to
act human sometimes. We’re governed by certain desires, needs we
can’t ignore. Believe me when I say, it was all I could do to walk
away from you last night because if I hadn’t ...”

“What?” Her voice was raw. He saw the hard
tips of her nipples through the thin fabric of her robe and he
remembered how badly he’d wanted to taste them last night. He
remembered holding her close to him while he undressed her. The
memory of her stretched on the bed, reaching for him made him hard
all over again.

He could have taken her so easily then. But
he didn’t want her that way. He wanted her with him--awake and
aware and begging him to do things to her she’d only dreamed about
letting a man do. He wanted to see her eyes go dark with desire and
her lips part as she sighed his name.

“If I hadn’t ... I’d still be inside you
right now.”

Erica trembled at Max’s revelation. She
dropped her arms and stared as her anger drained away. Something
inside her began to heat and suddenly she was aware of every
sensation. The cool fabric of her robe rubbed against her breasts
and an ache began to build between her legs. Max’s stare felt like
a lead weight, holding her in place and stealing her breath. Her
knees felt weak.

Max took a step toward her and she
instinctively bared her neck to him. The memory of his arms around
her, trapping her to his side while he drank from her, made her
shudder with desire she shouldn’t have felt.

When he put his fingers on the pulse point of
her neck, just above the marks he’d made, her muscles coiled and
she arched against his touch.

“Do you know how much danger you put yourself
in last night?” he said as he took another step. Now he was right
next to her. She felt the heat of his skin and didn’t question it.
He smelled like steam and male power and the almond soap she loved.
His fingers closed on her neck, caressing her skin beneath the
collar of her robe. “You attracted someone’s attention. Someone
devious enough to drug you.”

“Who?”

“Maybe Vera. I don’t know. She may have been
trying to lure you away from me. You saw Carlisle with his vampire
bitch. He might have drawn me away so Vera could lead you off
somewhere where I couldn’t find you. Carlisle wants you. I could
smell it on him.”

“But I’m yours.…” She breathed the words
without thinking. All coherent thought left her as Max dipped his
head close to her neck. His teeth scraped her shoulder and she
squeezed her eyes shut to block out the fear of losing control.

“Yes. You’re mine. Or at least you were
supposed to be mine last night.” His fingers slid into the folds of
her robe and parted it. Erica sighed as he drew a line of fire
between her breasts. “When I got you home, you asked me to make
love to you. Do you remember that?”

She shook her head. “I remember you standing
over me.”

“I did, for a long time, wondering what to do
with you. I wanted to shake you. You’ve gotten yourself in too deep
already and I wanted to scare you away from this world. I thought
about tearing your dress, drinking from the spot right here--” Max
thrust his hand between her thighs and Erica gasped. Her body
throbbed with need for him, and the feel of his fingers on her
sensitive flesh was her undoing. She moaned.

“If I’d bitten you there and left you, you’d
be wondering now what I did to you. I could have made you think
anything I wanted. I could have left you with the memory of my cock
inside you, but I didn’t because I didn’t want you to just remember
it. I wanted you to feel it.”

Max brought his fingers to the nest of curls
between her legs and delved inside. Erica cried out and spread her
legs. He caught her around the waist and pushed her backward
against the wall.

She dropped her head to one side, offering
herself to him again. When he bent his head to her neck and sucked
her skin into his mouth, she gasped. She shuddered against him when
his teeth pierced her skin. Instinctively, she spread her legs
father to allow him access anywhere he wanted to go. Their hands
met between them and battled to pull the towel from around his
waist.

With the last barrier between them gone, he
hoisted her up and positioned his hard thighs between hers. His
free hand pushed her robe from her shoulders, baring her breasts to
him. He caressed her as he drank and his erection grew until the
hard length teased her to distraction.